Thread: What cultures throughout history had the most equal treatment of women?

And which cultures glorified women?

I know that many Amazonian tribes prided women as great warriors. Many women even cut off their right breast to improve their shooting ability. I also believe (though I may be wrong) that early Japan had much respect for women. What other cultures am I missing?

Not very many I am afraid. You might want to go to the library to look....
And to johnboatdink, are you talking about now, or the past, because if you are talking about now, you have SERIOUS issues. Women deserve equal rights! We women have a lot more to deal with! You don't have to go through extruciating pain every month..or bear a child, the worst you will have (to that feeling) will be kidney stones

I hear Japanese men respect woman almost better than any other culture, so you might be right about that one. There is another culture... I can't remember. I believe it was Egypt, women were like jewels... simply... repected.

I have heard over and over again that it was the Jews. There, women are very well treated, respected and even revered.

Celtic cultures respected their women as equals, whether at home or on the battlefield. Some Native American tribes are the same. Some ancient African tribes were matrilineal, as were Native American tribes and early Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese civilization. Matrilineal means that everyone traced their heritage through their female ancestors, inherited wealth from the mother instead of the father, took the mother's family name, etc. In that respect, women were viewed as equal to men in those cultures.

There is also the theory that early Jewish culture was matrilineal; however, I am not educated enough in that regard to comment. Anyone else?

Several ancient Egyptian and African cultures had women rulers.
Here are some of them:
Hatchepsut (Kemet)
Nefertari (Kemet)
Cleopatra VII (Kemet)
Amina (Zaria)
Nzingha (Matamba)
Mekatilili wa Menza (Giriama tribes of Kenya)
Cancade of Monroe (Ethiopia)
Nehanda (Zimbabwe)
Nandi (Zululand)

native americans maybe. Barcheeampe of the Crow was a female chief

No culture that I have ever heard of has given women equal rights with men before the present-day Western society. The Amazons are a myth, and anyway why would chopping off your breast improve your shooting ability? You don't shoot across your breast. That makes no sense at all.

However, some cultures in the past gave more rights to women. Ancient Egyptian women had more rights than the women of ancient Greece for example. Medieval European women had more rights than women in the early modern period. Women in the early medieval period in England (Anglo Saxon England) seem to have had more rights than women after the Norman Conquest.

Japan did not, as far as I am aware, give equal status to women, but certainly there were many well educated and cultured women in ancient Japan. Read ' The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon' for a fascinating glimpse into life at the Japanese court in the year 1000 or thereabouts.

Matrilineal societies trace their lineage through the female line, but these societies tend to be just as male-dominated as any others. In all societies, it is men who who are generally to be found in leadership roles, and men who are the heads of the families. women may have more or less rights in some societies than in others, but it is still generally men who run things.