As I learn more about ancient history in many countries, I was surprised to find that women enjoyed more equal social status in ancient times than more recent times in these two millennia till the 19th century, either in India, China or Europe.
For example, during the time before c.3000 BCE in India, women were highly revered, independent and enjoyed equal wealth as shown by prehistoric female burials often containing similar ornaments and valuable grave goods. Historical records showed that even in some of the later periods of time, women still had equal access to formal education, freedom to choose their marriage and access to the government due to Buddhism’s influence. There were notable female scholars and sages known as top philosophers in India. However, as time went by and the religious distortion deepened, women’s social status declined significantly. By the time around 200 BCE, women in India lost legal rights, their public voice, lost autonomy, lost access to formal education, even their freedom to choose a marriage, and were viewed as inferior. Similar things happened in all other places around the world.
In China, depending on whether positive rulers were in positions, women had access to education and government positions for a long time in history due to the Taoism influence. For example, during the Zhou dynasty, ZhongShan period of time, or under some of the emperors in the later period of time, women were educated and highly revered with a few female generals(e.g Shen Yunying，Qin Liangyu etc) were well-known. However, women’s social status rapidly declined to the worst during the Qing dynasty(c.1644-1911).
Historically, Europe was a little better in women’s freedom of choosing a husband or owning properties due to Pallasgian/Etruscan’s strong cultural influence, otherwise women were in a similar situation like other places till after women fought for their own rights in the 19th century.
In a recent meditation, I inquired about the historical situation of women, and God Michael commented that Satan deliberately influenced rulers to lower the status of women because this distortion greatly undermined human development. (Not only have the education and the rights of roughly half the population been harmed, but the education of all children has also been harmed as a result.)
GOD Michael commented that women and men are equal and have equal rights. This teaching was in all his religious teachings(This teaching was related to the teaching of the souls. ) but was removed from the text we saw today by people influenced by Satan. He also encouraged all of us, especially women to spread information about this teaching and to protect women’s rights.