Justinian’s law made woman’s helplessness a product of family situation, not sex

Evidence

We can now understand why, from ancient Greece to today, there are so many common features in the indictments against woman; her condition has remained the same throughout superficial changes, and this condition defines what is called the woman’s “character”: she “wallows in immanence,” she is argumentative, she is cautious and petty, she does not have the sense either of truth or of accuracy, she lacks morality, she is vulgarly self-serving, selfish, she is a liar and an actress. There is some truth in all these affirmations. But the types of behaviors denounced are not dictated to woman by her hormones or predestined in her brain’s compartments: they are suggested in negative form by her situation. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1740 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Since the cause of women’s oppression is found in the resolve to perpetuate the family and keep the patrimony intact, if she escapes the family, she escapes this total dependence as well; if society rejects the family by denying private property, woman’s condition improves considerably. Sparta, where community property prevailed, was the only city-state where the woman was treated almost as the equal of man. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 190 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

When I use the word “woman” or “feminine,” I obviously refer to no archetype, to no immutable essence; “in the present state of education and customs” must be understood to follow most of my affirmations. There is no question of expressing eternal truths here, but of describing the common ground from which all singular feminine existence stems. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Women’s oppression derives from family and patrimony, not biological sex — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 190; Female chastity norms arise from inheritance, not from natural morality — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182; Maternal vocation is socially imposed, not instinctually innate — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 693 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Woman’s traits stem from her situation, not biology #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1740
• Women’s oppression derives from family and patrimony, not biological sex #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 190
• Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence #corroborates (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675
• The institution of inheritance causally produced woman’s subordination to man’s property #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182
• Female chastity norms arise from inheritance, not from natural morality #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182
• Maternal vocation is socially imposed, not instinctually innate #corroborates (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 693