Taught to Be Less:
- Ash A Milton
- Jan 28
- 11 min read
How Cultures Across the Globe Have Socialized Women Toward Submissiveness
Six Universal Themes From Every Populated Continent
From the European fairy tales that teach girls to wait for rescue, to the religious interpretations that demand submission to male authority, to the colonial systems that forcibly restructured egalitarian societies into patriarchal hierarchies—the story of women's socialization toward "being less" is remarkably consistent across continents, cultures, and centuries.
This comprehensive examination of sources from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, North America, South America, and Oceania reveals six universal themes in how women have been taught, through fairy tales, religious texts, folklore, colonial imposition, and legal systems, that their worth lies in submission, domesticity, and dependence on men. More importantly, it also reveals a seventh theme: women's persistent resistance and the contemporary reclamation movement challenging these constructs across every region studied.
Theme 1: Complementarity Destroyed by Colonization and Patriarchy
Perhaps the most striking finding across global research is that many pre-colonial and pre-patriarchal societies featured relatively egalitarian or complementary gender systems where women and men had different but equally valued roles. This pattern appears on every continent studied, suggesting that extreme gender hierarchy was imposed rather than universal.
In the Americas: Research on Native American societies reveals that many pre-colonial communities had matrilineal structures and egalitarian gender relations. Those with patrilineal organization were "generally more egalitarian than European societies" with low rates of gender-based violence, and gender roles were "viewed as complementary rather than hierarchical." Among the Montagnais-Naskapi peoples, before Catholic conversion, the social system was striking in its "woman-centeredness," with women exercising great control over family decisions. Missionaries reported with dismay that men "followed their wives' advice and would not act against their wishes." In Mesoamerica, gender relations among the Mexica showed complementarity, with dying in battle and dying in childbirth elevating men and women respectively—both seen as sacred sacrifices. By the sixteenth century, Spanish colonization had "destroyed Andean complementarity" in Peru.
In Oceania: Aboriginal Australian women's status "was equal and complementary with men in most cultures" before colonization. Women played significant roles as food providers, in ritual leadership, and as custodians of sacred sites. This status was "irrevocably altered during the 19th century" through colonization's destructive forces and colonists' prejudices.
The pattern repeats globally: complementary systems were systematically dismantled through colonial contact, religious conversion, and the imposition of patriarchal legal and economic structures. Within a single generation in many cases, societies that had valued women's authority transformed into ones where women occupied subordinate positions.
Theme 2: Religious Texts and Teachings Used to Justify Female Subordination
Across continents, religious institutions and texts have been interpreted through patriarchal lenses to demand women's submission to male authority—even when scholars now argue the original texts may have been more egalitarian. This theme appears in Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, and colonial missionary work worldwide.
Christianity in Colonial Contexts: When European colonizers brought Christianity to indigenous peoples across the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, it consistently "undermined women's importance in traditional spiritual practices and enforced belief in one male God." In Mesoamerica, Spanish colonial priests brought "dualistic philosophical premises that profoundly contradicted indigenous" beliefs, and "the church encouraged native women to submit to their husbands' authority and endure violent behavior." The U.S. boarding school system for Native children aimed to enforce "European patriarchal conceptions of gender roles." In Australia, "Christianity and Victorian ethics enforced strict gender roles" where "control of women" was necessary to ensure men could pass land to sons.
Islam in the Middle East: Islamic feminist scholars argue that "medieval Islamic jurisprudence and dominant schools of interpretation were heavily influenced by patriarchal traditions of their times," leading to "patriarchal structures being incorrectly believed to come from the Quran itself." While the Quran teaches that all believers must submit to God, cultural interpretations added that "women must also submit to male authority." Textualist readings that view religious texts as having "one static literalist meaning—voiced by institutionalized patriarchy" generally oppose gender equality, even though many scholars argue these interpretations distort the Quran's egalitarian message.
Confucianism in East Asia: In China, Neo-Confucian philosopher Cheng Yi stated that "it would be better for a widow to die of starvation than to remarry"—a saying quoted for centuries to pressure widows. Chinese Confucianism "significantly influenced Vietnam," with "Confucian kingship propagating symbols of virtuous women to establish moral order in male-dominated society."
Catholicism in Latin America: The Catholic Church throughout Latin America developed the concept of "marianismo," named after the Virgin Mary, which "positions women as embracing self-denial, humility, sacrifice for children and husband, and submission to male authority." The Church used women as "submissive laborers in parishes," with some clergy treating women as "servants for worship and manual labor." This ideology "sustains beliefs that women are submissive and should stay in abusive relationships because it's a woman's lot to suffer."
Theme 3: Fairy Tales and Folklore Teaching Passivity, Beauty, and the Need for Male Rescue
Stories transmitted across generations have taught girls that their value lies in beauty, passivity, and waiting for male salvation, with happiness only achievable through marriage and motherhood. This pattern appears most prominently in European fairy tales but echoes in folklore across Africa and Asia.
European Fairy Tales: Traditional European fairy tales "portray women as submissive, obedient, passive, and helpless, while men are depicted as authoritative, wise, and strong." Classic tales like Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty teach that "women need male rescue and support, with the message that girls should wait patiently to be saved by a prince." These tales "celebrate passivity, dependency, submissiveness, and self-sacrifice as women's principal virtues," suggesting that "society's continuance depends on women's endorsement of domestic roles."
African Folklore: Research on African folktales reveals similar patterns: "In most African folktales, women are represented as passive and subservient, relegated to supporting male protagonists or caricatured as evil witch archetypes." Among the Lunda people of Zambia, traditional proverbs portray women as "tools and submissive to men," with most proverbs depicting women as "evil, promiscuous, unreliable, and intellectually inferior." South African folktales "mainly serve to confirm patriarchal communal life in terms of marriage, work, character traits, and authority."
Asian Contexts: In Korean culture, "feminine beauty is seen in obedience, submissiveness and kindness," reflecting how cultural narratives shaped expectations. The global reach of Western fairy tales means these European stories "have affected the mentality of millions of children worldwide," transmitting messages about women's need for male support across cultural boundaries.
Theme 4: Violent Enforcement of Patriarchal Norms
Physical violence, intimidation, and institutional force were consistently used to compel women's submission and punish resistance. This violence was not incidental but systematic—a deliberate tool of patriarchal enforcement.
Colonial Violence in the Americas: European colonizers used "threats of violence and abduction of Native American women," which "halted women's involvement in trade and food production." Colonizers deliberately "used violence to remove women from the center of Indigenous society to instill patriarchal ideals and weaken communities." In Mesoamerica, "physical intimidation of women became part of colonial society," and violence toward native women increased as "men were forced into patriarchal roles in societies where gender equality remained a strong principle."
Religious Sanctioning of Violence: Violence was not just tolerated but encouraged by religious authorities. In Latin America, "violence was tolerated and sometimes encouraged by priests to tame women, keep them from sin, and keep them obedient to their husbands." The church in Mesoamerica "encouraged native women to submit to their husbands' authority and endure violent behavior."
Institutional Control: In Australia, "colonial governance created rigid systems of segregation with additional gendered sanctions for Aboriginal women." The systematic nature of this violence—legal, physical, economic, and social—reveals it as a deliberate strategy rather than individual acts of cruelty.
Contemporary Resurgence: This historical pattern of using violence to enforce submission continues in stark contemporary form. In 2025, viral footage captured U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents kneeling on a pregnant woman's back as she lay face-down in the snow before dragging her by one arm through a Minneapolis street while bystanders screamed that she couldn't breathe. Across the country, ProPublica documented nearly 50 instances of agents smashing car windows—including vehicles with crying children and pregnant women inside—compared to only eight such incidents in the previous decade. The message is unmistakable: women who resist, or are simply in the wrong place, will be met with physical force—slammed to the ground, dragged through snow, their car windows shattered, their bodies placed in the crosshairs—continuing centuries of using violence to keep women subordinate and afraid.
Theme 5: Economic and Legal Systems Transferring Power to Men
Legal structures, property rights, inheritance laws, and economic systems were systematically restructured to concentrate resources and decision-making power in male hands. This economic dimension of patriarchy ensured women's material dependence on men.
Forced Transformation of Matrilineal Systems: In Native American societies, colonizers took "legal actions to forcibly convert matrilineal societies to patrilineal ones by reassigning land ownership to men and changing inheritance laws." This transformed systems where women owned homes and goods into ones where men controlled property.
Inheritance Law Manipulation: In China during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, "widows could no longer take their dowries into new marriages, making them dependent on their husband's family." In Middle Eastern contexts, "Islamic laws of inheritance are frequently not applied in rural areas, with women normally not inheriting land or livestock," despite religious texts granting them inheritance rights.
Economic Exclusion: Colonial systems excluded women from economic participation. "White men preferred to deal with Native men in trade and political negotiations despite women sitting at the helm in most Native communities." In Mesoamerica, Spanish colonial priests "forced men and women into service to pay tribute," transforming household production and women's economic roles.
Legal Sanction of Violence Against Women: Legal systems in the United States and United Kingdom did not address male sexual violence against wives until the 1990s—barely a generation ago. In England and Wales, marital rape was explicitly legal until 1991, when the House of Lords finally ruled in R v R that a wife does not "submit herself irrevocably to sexual intercourse in all circumstances." The legal doctrine traced back to Sir Matthew Hale's 1736 treatise declaring that a husband "cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife." In the United States, marital rape was legal in every state until the mid-1970s and was not criminalized nationwide until 1993—meaning women born in the 1970s and 1980s grew up in a country where husbands had legal immunity to rape their wives. Even France, which finally adopted a consent-based definition of rape in October 2025 following the Gisèle Pelicot case (in which 51 men were convicted of raping a woman drugged unconscious by her husband), had previously defined rape solely through "violence, coercion, threat, or surprise"—allowing a woman's silence to be interpreted as consent.
The Legal Present: Yet even as Western nations belatedly criminalize marital rape, it remains explicitly legal in at least 32 countries worldwide, including India, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania. In India, where one-third of men admit to forcing their wives into sexual acts, the law explicitly states that "sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife" is not rape. In Ghana, the law declares that "consent given by husband or wife at marriage cannot be revoked" unless they divorce. Globally, at least 112 countries do not criminalize marital rape.
The legal system's explicit endorsement of male sexual violence within marriage—whether in 1736 England, 1980s America, or 2026 India—demonstrates that women's subordination was not merely cultural but was actively enforced through law, sending the unmistakable message that women's bodies belong to their husbands, not to themselves. The result across all regions was material dependence: women who once controlled resources, participated in trade, and had economic autonomy found themselves legally and economically subordinated to male relatives.
Bonus Theme: Women's Resistance and Contemporary Reclamation
The sixth and perhaps most important theme is one of hope: in every region studied, contemporary women scholars, activists, and communities are challenging patriarchal interpretations and working to recover egalitarian traditions. This resistance is not new—it has existed throughout history—but is now becoming more visible and organized.
Islamic Feminism: Muslim feminist scholars are "making their voices heard through re-readings of Islamic text, and their call for the Quranic approach in uprooting patriarchal principles." They argue that "liberation must come from within the Islamic sphere, where Muslim women have a proactive and autonomous role in reform" and in "revealing the historical prejudices that colored the understanding of the Quranic message."
Indigenous Reclamation: Aboriginal women in Australia, Native American women, and Indigenous women throughout Latin America are "reclaiming" their histories and traditional roles. They challenge colonial narratives and assert that their "original cultural knowledge" shows women held positions of authority and respect before colonization. Two-Spirit Indigenous people in North America are working to reclaim their "traditionally accepted status" after centuries of erasure.
Rewriting Fairy Tales: Contemporary authors, particularly "Black female authors and storytellers," are creating "innovative" retellings that "demonstrate resistance to patriarchal structures" and "contest traditional gender roles found in many African folktales." Similar movements exist in retelling European fairy tales with empowered heroines.
Challenging Marianismo: Women throughout Latin America are challenging marianismo ideology and the Church's patriarchal structures, with scholars calling for recognition that "the absence of women in decision making is a defect, an ecclesiological lacuna, the negative effect of a clerical and chauvinistic mentality."
Conclusion: A Global Pattern of Imposition, Not Nature
The evidence from six continents reveals a clear pattern: extreme gender hierarchy and the teaching of female submissiveness were not universal human conditions but rather were systematically imposed through colonization, religious interpretation, economic restructuring, violence, and cultural narratives.
The consistency of this pattern—from Native American matrilineal societies forcibly converted to patriarchy, to Aboriginal Australian women losing equal status under colonial rule, to Andean complementarity destroyed by Spanish conquest, to Islamic texts reinterpreted through patriarchal lenses—suggests these were deliberate strategies of control rather than natural developments.
Women were taught to be "less" through:
• Fairy tales and folklore that celebrated passivity and waiting for male rescue
• Religious texts interpreted to demand submission to male authority
• Legal systems that transferred property and power to men
• Violence and intimidation that punished resistance
• The systematic destruction of complementary and egalitarian gender systems
But the existence of persistent resistance—and the contemporary global movement of women reclaiming egalitarian traditions, reinterpreting religious texts, and challenging patriarchal structures—reveals that these teachings were never fully accepted. Women have always known they were meant to be more.
The question now is not whether women were "naturally" subordinate—the evidence clearly shows they were not—but rather how long it will take to undo centuries of systematic indoctrination. The reclamation has begun, and it is happening on every continent.
Photos from FreePix and News Sources
Sources by Region
This article draws on research from academic journals, anthropological studies, historical analyses, and cultural scholarship representing every populated continent.
Europe & North America
• "Exploring Gender Ideology in Fairy Tales" - Academic journal on gender representation in traditional stories
• "Examples of Female Characters in Selected Traditional Fairy Tales" - Journal of Language Teaching and Research
• "Acculturation and Reception of Womanhood in Fairy Tales" - Digital Commons
"Woman held face down in snow while detained by ICE" - CNN, December 18, 2025
"Minneapolis police chief criticizes ICE tactics after clash with protesters" - CNN, December 18, 2025
"Reported: Uses of force increase during immigration-enforcement actions" - Immigration Policy Tracking Project / ProPublica, January 2026
"What we know so far about the ICE shooting in Minneapolis" - PBS News, January 8, 2026
"'There's a baby!' ICE agents stop Alamosa family at gunpoint, smash car window" - The Colorado Sun, October 1, 2025
Asia
• "Women in Traditional China" - Asia Society educational resources
• "Gender and Superstition in Modern Chinese Literature" - Academic analysis
• "Vietnamese lived religion, Confucianism and women" - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Africa
• "The more than beautiful woman - African folktales of female agency and emancipation" - ResearchGate
• "Portrayal of African Women in Folklore: Lunda Proverbs" - Academia.edu
• "Unmasking Women's Rivalry in Cameroonian Folktales" - Academic study
Middle East
• "Five things you need to know about women in Islam" - Arab Center Washington DC
• "Islam, Patriarchy, and Feminism in the Middle East" - Margot Badran, Studia Islamica
• "Re-Understanding Religion and Support for Gender Equality in Arab Countries" - PMC/NIH
Latin America
• "Religious Change and Women's Status in Latin America" - Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame
• "Marianismo" - Encyclopedia with academic citations
• "Chapter 7: Latin America" - Gendered Lives textbook
Indigenous North America
• "She's the Center of My Life: Roles and Expectations of Native American Women" - PMC/NIH
• "The Changing Role of the Native American Lesbian" - University of Wisconsin
• "The History of Indigenous Women's Leadership" - RepresentWomen
• "Chapter 10: Indigenous Women under Settler Colonialism" - Histories of Indigenous Peoples and Canada
Mesoamerica & South America
• "Gender and Religion: Gender and Mesoamerican Religions" - Encyclopedia.com
• "Gender roles in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica" - Wikipedia with academic sources
• "Women in the Americas" - Historical overview
• "The Modernization of Resistance: Latin American Women" - Bridgewater State University
Oceania/Australia
• "Indigenous Women in Australia - A short recent history" - Aboriginal Art UK
• "Aboriginal Women" - Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
• "Reempowering Ourselves: Australian Aboriginal Women" - Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
• "Women in Aboriginal Societies" - Encyclopedia.com
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