The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.107

c16.107

The Roman Law regarded the wife as the daughter of her husband as far as her juridical status was concerned ; for a long time she could not sign a will, make a contract or become a witness. Down to *c.* 200 A. D., even mothers of several children continued to be under the tutelage of their male relations. ‘Woman is always dependent,’ says Confucius, ‘and owes due homage to her father-in-law and husband.’ In the Christian marriage, the wife has to take the vow of obedience at the time of her marriage ; logically speaking this places her under the perpetual tutelage of her husband. The Bible argues that women should never usurp authority over men, but be always subordinate to them, firstly because Eve, and not Adam, was deceived (I Timothy ii, 9-15), and secondly because the former was created out of a rib of the latter. At the synod of Macon in 585 A. D., the assembled bishops debated with much earnestness as to whether women were human beings at all, and finally concluded that they were. Numberless writers of medieval Europe have emphasised the inherent inferiority of women. Milton, for instance, held that women ought to obey without argument. His Eve says to Adam,