WOMEN IN WORLD HISTORY I: FROM THE PALEOLITHIC TO 1500 (HI1010)

Why do women have less power, make less money, and have fewer opportunities than men do? Why have women's bodies been controlled, stigmatized, and pathologized? This is the first half of a year-long investigation of the origins and impacts of gender inequality. We start with our pre-agricultural Sapiens ancestors up to the beginning of the early modern period, looking primarily but not exclusively at socio-cultural developments that shaped understandings of gender, patriarchy and the role of women in different early cultures around the world.