In a rather interesting study, conducted by anthropologists at the University College London, it was concluded that the prehistoric society functioned on egalitarian principles, with women being equal to men in all respects.

Contrary to popular belief, where we imagine our ancestors as being extremely regressive and orthodox in their views when it came to equality between genders, a two-year long study conducted by researchers living among hunter-gatherers in Congo and the Philippines, has proved us wrong. The researchers collected data from families after conducting comprehensive interviews and came to the conclusion that equality between the sexes was the norm throughout much of our evolutionary history.

Whom we imagined as being male chauvinists dominating the female members of their group, were in fact, the dominated! So much so, that the prehistoric females forced their spouses to spend more time with their in-laws.

The study reported that the hunter-gatherers lived in unrelated groups, further adding weight to the argument that women had as much say in family matters as men. This is because if men had their way, they would surround themselves with only their close relations. But, what was observed was that, the groups also housed their in-laws. This diverse make-up of the groups was attributable to the females who ensured that less related people lived together. This helped them build traits such as cooperation and teamwork, thereby giving them a survival advantage.

Thus, women had as much say as the men, over where the group lived and whom they lived with. Even when compared with computer models where decisions were taken by both men and women, these family trees seen in hunter-gatherer groups fitted perfectly.

The researchers asserted that it was with the advent of agriculture, when the men started amassing wealth, the inequality between the sexes emerged.

Thus, the study was right when it said, “Inequality between the sexes could be a relatively modern invention”.