>>16359058You forget that in many civilizations, possessing weapons and going to war has been a privilege of a soldier caste.
Yes, not a privilege of men, but of a very restricted group of men.
Some examples off the top of my head:
One of the things people were revolting against in the French Revolution was the right for only the nobles to bear arms.
In feudal Japan, you had the samurai caste of warriors. Only they were allowed to openly wear their weapons.
Over the course of history, the scale of war increased, and thus the need for soldiers. That's when the common man was recruited as well.
The roles only shifted slightly though, because a privileged caste of men (nobles) had it much easier advancing in rank and acquiring less lethal command positions.
As history moves on, we see less and less of that, and finally women are starting to be accepted into the military of several modern nations.
However, they still have trouble advancing in ranks, much as the common man had in the past.
I think it's important to keep a historically sound perspective on issues of equality. For a long period of history, many civilizations were founded on inequality on several levels. It was not just a matter of man or woman, but also of noble and non-noble.
With time equality for men has advanced (abolishing privileges of nobles), and with a certain lag equality of women is following.
