The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.105

c16.105

It is however necessary to point out here that the doctrine of the perpetual tutelage of women was universally accepted almost everywhere till quite recent times. ‘To the average Athenian’ says Prof. Gilbert Murray, ‘it was probably rather wicked for a woman to have any character, wicked for her to take part in public life, wicked for her to acquire learning. Even the great philosopher Aristotle thought that like slaves, artisans and traders, women should occupy a subordinate place. Their will is weak, virtue less perfect and self-sufficient, and deliberative faculty rather inconclusive. Male by nature is superior and female inferior. The one rules and the other is ruled, and this principle of necessity extends to all mankind¹.