1. Etymology of misogyny: Greek "miso" meaning hatred and "gyno" meaning woman

2. Greek origin of misogynistic view

• Women were viewed as inferior to men in both mind and body. Greek biology viewed women as innately inferior beings whose functions were childbearing and housekeeping. Knowledge of embryology was limited with the result that it was believed that the male role in reproduction was more active and more important than the female (source 17, p. ix). In Generation of Animals, Aristotle stated that " "The creation of a female was always a mistake, therefore, resulting from an imperfect act of generation"" (source 17, p. ix). Therefore, females were considered aberrational males and monsters of nature.
• The concept of female psychology is congruent with the biological. Because women were Physically inferior, they were also psychologically weak; that is because they were softer and more docile than men, they were despondent, querulous, and deceitful. Lacking control of their passions, women were thought to crave sexual fulfillment. Female passions were created by the hystera (womb); thus women were lustful, deceitful, loquacious, irrational, and in extreme cases hysterical. Due to the absence of rationality and emotional control, women should be ruled by men in both the household and the state.
• The negative portrayal of women in Greek literature illustrates the culture's misogynistic view: Dejanita caused Hercules' suicide by giving him a poisoned shirt, Clytemnestra slew her husband Agamemnon, and Livia murdered her husband on behalf of her lover Sejanus.
• Plato somewhat ameliorated Greek misogyny when in the Republic he posited that men and women might posses the same virtues. In the Republic he created an ideal state in which class, wealth, and gender distinctions are nonexistent. Since there were no households and ownership of proper, there was no need to subordinate women. While Plato did entertain the possibility of female virtue, he limited this view when the recognition of female equality was precluded by the absence of property and households; the corollary was that such equality was impossible in reality.

3. Roman origin of misogynistic view

• The Roman contribution to misogyny is based primarily in law. Roman statutes stipulated that only property-owning adult males should administer households and the affairs of state. Corpus of Civil Law became the basis of the European legal system. Females were never emancipated, which meant that they never had the right to legal autonomy or to own land. Women could not sue for divorce, and male heirs inherited their fathers' property. Because women were excluded from ownership of property, they could not participate in civil society. During the late Republic and Imperial periods the status of women improved slightly although they were never allowed to participate in public life. These modifications included the right to inherit and keep property inherited from their father, the right to bequeath property to children, and the right to divorce.

4. Christian origin of misogynistic view

• The primary biblical source of misogyny was the Old Testament account of creation in Genesis in which Eve caused the downfall of Adam and all of mankind by not only eating the forbidden fruit herself but also by tempting Adam to do likewise. Other Old Testament stories such as Samson and Delilah were also cited as evidence of women's wickedness. The creation story in Genesis also portrayed women as inferior to men because Eve was created from Adam's rib.
• The New Testament relegated women to an inferior role. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 11:3: "the head of a woman is her husband." I Timothy 2::9-15 cautioned women against wearing jewels, expensive clothes, or elaborate hairdos but also indicated that through childbirth women were saved from their sinful ways. The later Epistles portrayed women as the waker sex and stressed the subordination of wives to their husbands.

5. Medieval origin of misogynistic view

• In an attempt to exalt chastity, some overly zealous theologians, most notably, St. Jerome, portrayed women as innately lecherous and shrewish. Adoration of the Virgin Mary promoted virginity as the ideal state for women. Virtuous women were good housekeepers, loyal wives, saints and martyrs. (source 17, page xii)
• The medieval church still subscribed to the misogynistic biblical portrayal of women.
• Secular treatises reinforced the biblical misogynistic view of women. Particularly popular were Walter Map's The Letter of Valerius Concerning Not Marrying and Theophrastus' Book Concerning Marriage. Witch-hunting manuals also promoted the negative image of women since the witches, who were primarily women, possessed the supposed vices of most women but in an exaggerated degree.
• Males received inheritance, and a husband managed his wife's dowry.