Is gender inequality man-made? [View all]

People have long accepted that political power is man-made rather than god-given. But it’s been different for gender equality. History, religion, science, everything in fact, has seemed to condemn feminism for being against the natural order.

Are there examples of true gender equality in the history of mankind? And if so, how far do we have to go back?

Catalhöyük – aggressively egalitarian?

It’s hard to get one’s 21st century head around the Catalhöyük settlement, which existed from approximately 7500 – 5700 BC.


The Seated Woman of Catalhöyük (6000 BC)

Its early inhabitants lived at the dawn of agriculture. They had semi-domesticated animals and were learning to sow crops. Not only did women have the same diets as men and inhabit the same physical space, but there were no wider hierarchies in the community.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4vD023dn4cp8wF2lRntcQ7L/is-gender-inequality-man-made