I talked about this book a few days ago, The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time by Will Durant. There is something that I find interesting. Some might seem provocative to male readers.
Durant's list of "The ten 'Peaks' of human progress" includes: 1. Speech. 2. Fire. 3. The conquest of the animals. 4. Agriculture. 5. Social organization. 6. Morality. 7. Tools. 8. Science. 9. Education. 10. Printing.
On No.4: agriculture, are two parts. First, the author indicated that for a civilization to take form, it needs homes and agriculture. Men wondering around in the wildness as hunters, herders and killers need to settle down in one place to build homes, schools and churches, and colleges. They needed homes to form psychological cement of the society.
Second, the role of women. Someone said, "Women were the last creatures to be civilized by men." Durant said, this was totally wrong. The opposite is true.
—“It was women who gave men agriculture and home. She domesticated men as she domesticated sheep and pigs. Man is woman's last domesticated animal and perhaps he is the last creature that would be civilized by woman."
This is the first time that I heard of this perspective on the historical roles of women and men in the development of agriculture and domestic life, that women played a central role in the domestication of both animals and men. Even more interesting is this: the great historian Will Durant likened the process of taming savage men to the domestication of livestock.
Throughout history and across all cultures, women have been oppressed, deprived, discriminated against at the hand of men under patriarchal rule. In the mind of men, it is more likely that men civilize women through their control of women.
I won't be surprised if male readers find it offensive at the suggestion that women became civilized first and men were to be civilized by women.