I know I'm out of school, but the reading just keeps going

Via Twisty, at I Blame The Patriarchy

"Patriarchal concepts are […] built into all the mental constructs of […] civilization in such a way as to remain largely invisible. [Patriarchy] gradually institutionalized the rights of men to control and appropriate the sexual and reproductive services of women. Out of this form of dominance developed other forms of dominance, such as slavery. Once established as a functioning system of complex hierarchical relationships patriarchy transformed sexual, social, economic, relations and dominated all systems of ideas. In the course of the establishment of patriarchy and constantly reinforced as the result of it, the major idea systems which explain and order Western civilization incorporated a set of unstated assumptions about gender, which powerfully affected the development of history and human thought."