Single women: A history of misogyny

Misogyny is the fundamental narrative of a patriarchy that has worked since prehistoric times to devalue the feminine. Unmarried women are particular anathema to patriarchal ideology, their marginalisation validated by the authoritative voices of institutional religion and science. This monograph maps the systematic elevation of the masculine over the feminine since patriarchy’s arrival in the Palaeolithic Mediterranean region, the birthplace of the Western tradition. The story moves through the West’s formative cultures and beliefs before relocating to England in the early Common Era, finishing in the New World, Australia, in modern times. Over millennia, women’s social position has periodically risen and fallen, consistent with patriarchy’s need for access to, and control over, their reproductive, economic, and political resources. In the early twenty-first century, the numbers of women embracing lives of relational independence are increasing. As might be expected, patriarchy continues its campaign of control through cultural discourses that idealise sexual attachment and privilege the couple.