Theories on the
Origin of Women’s
Oppression
Chapter 10
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:
1. State his or her own understanding of the roots of
sexual discrimination
2. Explain why discrimination is not neccessary for the
development of human civilization and how it evolved
based on historical circumstances
● How did it happen that half of the world’s population is
systematically discriminated?
● Why do women have lower status than men?
How important are women?
● Women are crucial in food production and preparation
● Women ensured survival of the species through foraging and
gathering activities
○ Foraging provided 90% of an individual’s dietary requirements
while hunting provided only 10%
● Women bear and rear children
● Women are the source of the cultural and emotional education of
children
● First healers (given their extensive knowledge of herbs)
Several theories on women’s oppression:
● Goddess to God worship
● Eve/Pandora concept
● A shift of production
Theory 1:
Goddess Worship to God Worship
Theory 1: Goddess to God Worship
● It is believed that in the past, women were
respected more than men (mother goddess cult)
● In some cultures, men who wanted to be persons of
power, emulated women
● In some ancient societies, men’s penises were
carved out in vaginas to seize the powers of the
goddess
● Women-centric cults existed prior to the
phallocentric cults
● Progression from female-centric to male-centric
worship was slow and violent
Theory 1: Goddess to God Worship
● Men realized that they too played
a part in fertility - that their seed
was essential in creating
offsprings
● With the expansion of phallus
worship around 1500 BC, women
were less valued
● Male bore the creative power and
the female is merely a receptive
vessel of life
Theory 2: Eve/Pandora concept
Refers to the Judeo-
Christian story of Eve
(See Genesis 1-3)
Theory 2: Eve/Pandora concept
● Pandora is the first woman created
by Zeus as a form of pretty (but
foolish) revenge on mankind
because they received the gift of fire
from Prometheus
● Prometheus warn Epimetheus not to
receive gifts from Zeus
● Zeus gave Pandora to Epimetheus
● Epimetheus was eventually
persuaded to receive Pandora
because his refusal will anger Zeus
Theory 2: Eve/Pandora concept
● Epimetheus, as warned by Prometheus to
always keep it close, has a jar that he
locked away because the jar contains
Sprites that causes grief to mankind
● Pandora, being foolish and idle, opened
the jar and released the Sprites
What fuels negative perception towards women?
● Fall of the mother goddess
worship
● Rise of the phallocentric
worship
● Negative implications of a
woman’s role in the
Christian Bible story
How women are viewed in the context of the story of Eve and Pandora?
● Women are the bearer of suffering because
she was weak willed and could not be
trusted
● Women are the reason/catalyst for men to
lose reason and responsibility
● Unfit or incapable to run governments, set
standards for literature and commerce, be
priests or left to their own devices
Jesus Christ was clearly a person who
believed in the capabilities of women and
promoted their place as leaders among his
disciples.
If Jesus believed in the capabilities of women,
why is there misogynistic treatment of
women by Christianity?
Theory 3: A Shift
of Production
From hunting and foraging, the shift to
agriculture is likewise a plausible
theory for the suppression of women.
Theory 3: A shift of reproduction
● Human reproduction for the purpose of creating more workers
became a crucial task in society
● It has become necessary to keep women at home to produce and
raise children
● Secuality had to be overseen so that the community could be assured
that the children they produced would become loyal members of
society
● Men worked in food production while women in laborer production -
those who are involved in food production were more empowered
Oppression is
often justified by
essentialist
reasons.
Essentialist reasons assert that:
● Oppression of women is due to the
nature of their gender or their
socially-constructed roles
● Women are the lesser sex because
of their biological make-up
● Women are smaller and less bulky,
hence, cannot become good
warriors, laborers, or athletes
Essentialist reasons assert that: | cont.
● Women are fundamentally built for
child-bearing and child-rearing
because of their smaller frames
● The woman’s mind is assumed
incapable abstract, logical thinking,
they are believed to be less
capable of scientific and other
highly academic endeavors
Essentialist reasons assert that: | cont.
● Women comes with natural
impurities because they bleed
on a monthly basis
● Moral weakness makes them
unsuitable for leadership and
meaningful participation in
religious rituals
Essentialist reasons assert that: | cont.
● Women are the primary source
of the human’s fall from
paradise thus, cannot be
trusted in building a better
world for mankind
