August 8, 2025
There was a time earlier in history when women were revered and worshipped as goddesses and divine figures and why wouldn't they be. The bodies of women are capable of creating new life almost all on its own. Scholar and feminist historians argue that goddess worship was gradually suppressed as patriarchal societies and religions gained prominence, with male-centered deities and social structures becoming dominant.
The leading cause of death among pregnant women is homicide, often at the hands of the very partner whose child they are carrying. In 2023, 85,000 women and girls were purposefully murdered worldwide. Of these, 51,100 or 60 percent were killed by family members or intimate partners. According to the data, one woman or girl is killed every ten minutes, amounting to 140 women and girls each day at the hands of partners or close family members.
Africa recorded the highest number of intimate partner and family-related killings in 2023, with an estimated 21,700 fatalities. With 2.9 victims per 100,000, Africa also had the largest number of victims relative to its population size. In 2024, the United Nations reported that an intimate partner or family member kills an average of 140 women and girls every day, making the home the deadliest place for women.
Domestic violence remains underreported worldwide because of fear, stigma, and legal systems that fail to protect victims. In many countries, laws still allow reduced penalties for men who kill women under so-called “honor” justifications. These realities prove that violence against women is not random, it is systemic.
In certain countries where strict interpretations of Islamic law are enforced, women face severe restrictions on their freedoms. For example, under Taliban control in Afghanistan, girls are banned from attending school or pursuing education. Women are prohibited from many professions and must cover themselves completely in public.
Until 2018, women in Saudi Arabia were forbidden to drive and were often stopped and turned back if caught behind the wheel. In some regions, women are barred from swimming in public spaces such as beaches and lakes, discouraged from speaking freely, and are expected to remain under male guardianship. Punishments are imposed for raising their voice toward a man.
These laws and cultural practices strip women of basic civic participation, reducing them just as in historical patriarchal systems to childbearing roles. In other societies, the practice of female genital mutilation continues as a means of controlling women’s sexuality, even though it causes lifelong physical and psychological harm.
The Salem witch trials are a prominent example of how far a patriarchal society is willing to go to subjugate and vilify women. These trials were often used as a tool to purge the women who didn’t fit the historical mold of what a woman should be in society.
Ironically, the trials were instigated by women themselves who believed themselves to be bewitched by other women. This is a testament to how dangerous mass hysteria and the lack of education really is.
To further prove my point that these trials were mainly driven behind society's hatred for women and were driven by emotion and not logic. It is imperative to state that the youngest individual to be arrested in support of said trials is a 4 year old baby girl.
During the witch trials there was a guide named the Malleus Maleficarum which was a manual used to outline how to identify and prosecute so called witches and by extension the book outlines how women were the weaker the two sexes were prone to lying and we were destined to be evil and manipulative.
The Malleus Maleficarum was written and published by German Catholic Clergyman Heinrich Kramer two years after he was chased out of Innsbruck Austria in 1485 for illegal sexual behaviors after becoming obsessed with the sexual business of a woman named Helena Scheuberin. She was a married woman whom he considered was too independent because she refused to attend his sermons and considered him to be a "bad monk." He brought charges of witchcraft against her because she told other individuals in the town not to attend his sermons, and she was later acquitted and he was shunned and tossed out, the Bishop Karl Golser saying that Kramer has essentially made it all up in his own head.
In the book Kramer states “What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours”
Therefore the writing of the Malleus Maleficarum is deemed by me as a systematic and cruel and revengeful way to harass and hunt innocent victims most of whom were women damning them to horrific baseless witch trials.
Women not having agency over their bodies such as the right to an abortion. In Jamaica abortion is not legal and has never been. This has led to dangerous and illegal abortions having to take place on the island, jeopardizing the health and wellbeing of women. I recently read an article published in 2022 stating that Amnesty International has named Jamaica among countries in the Americas that have failed to do enough to prioritise sexual and reproductive health.
According to the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, more than 22,000 pregnancies are aborted annually in Jamaica, costing taxpayers US$1.4 million or $226,800,000 JMD each year to fund the healthcare system’s struggle with complications caused from unsafe abortions islandwide.
What serves as an incredibly sore point for me is when the Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte stated that she would not look into abortion rights for Jamaica because people told her mother to abort her in 2023. A portfolio minister of parliament should NEVER use personal experiences to cloud their judgment nor use them to block or propagate any one agenda. Don't force your personal ideals on others.
Minister Forte’s mother’s decision has absolutely nothing to do with the women of Jamaica and them being able to govern their own bodies. Ironically, her decision to not allow women to have a choice in what to do with their own bodies contrasts her mothers ability to do what she wanted with her body. She had a choice to keep her child and did so, however her daughter somehow believes that to honour that personal decision she must now choose to take away or keep away the same choice her mother exercised for her own life and child. Quite the irony.
In 2022, the Roe v Wade law was overturned in the U.S, subsequently dooming American women to bring to term children that they do not want. They are now forced to carry to term dead babies in their bodies, they cannot expel pregnancies that will harm them or lead to death such as ectopic pregnancies, young girls are not even allowed to abort the children of their rapists. It is never right for an individual to not be able to remove something from their body that they do not want there. Being forced to put your body on the line your life in danger to give birth to child that you do not want is beyond harrowing and inhumane
Women are blamed for men leaving their children and abandoning their responsibilities under the guise that she should have known better or she should have seen the signs beforehand but it should never be the case that anyone abandons their child.
Women are blamed for feminine boys, it said that women cannot raise boys and are to be blamed for the apparent surge in males that do not fit the mold of how masculine men should be, which is ironic because she wouldn't have to raise her son alone if the father of the child did not abandon his family.
Women are chastised for being too accepting of homosexuality. Which is believed to be blamed for men that are too effeminate and is also sometimes blamed for the declining population.
For the supposed population crisis that is taking place in the world recently it is the women who are constantly subjected to the blame of this ‘crisis’.There are countless studies stating that men too are the cause of the decline especially in Jamaica where there was a recent study showing the poor sperm quality of Jamaican men. In the study, Dr Kamali Carroll, founder of the Jamaica Fertility Clinic stated that for every 10 men who are screened, only one or two have sperm of sufficient quality to donate.
Women are blamed for men not being able to express themselves emotionally which is a horrible lie. This ideology of men being the more logical gender is only upheld by men. Back in the historical times when men were considered the only viable option for being the head of the household and women were treated as just property men put into society the ideology that they are strong and men shouldn’t cry nor show any form of weakness, women had no authority or position in society to challenge that and there they could only accept that. Eventually women started holding them to that standard and that box that they locked themselves into and eventually men started to not like it. So what they did was they turned around and blamed women. Women are not to be blamed for men failing to create safe environments amongst themselves to vent and be emotional. What is happening is men are suffering from patriarchy.
In society, women are often labeled as overly emotional, a stereotype that is used to overlook them for leadership roles. They are deemed unfit for such positions, with claims that they are not natural-born leaders. However, when the argument shifts to excusing the behavior of boys, the narrative changes. It is said that girls mature faster than boys and therefore boys should be given grace for their actions. This double standard reveals the hypocrisy in how maturity and capability are measured depending on convenience in our patriarchal society
Why are women required to change their names when they get married? How is marriage considered a union when only one person's name and by extension, their identity changes? Women are often reduced to “a man’s wife” because they are expected to adopt his surname and alter their entire salutation, while the man’s identity remains unchanged.
Why was a gender-neutral salutation never created to signify marital status for both partners equally? This practice dates back to an era when women were regarded as property, and society has yet to abolish this outdated, sexist tradition.
Why are children traditionally given the father’s surname when it is the mother who risks her life to bring them into the world? The mother carries the child for nine months, endures the pain of childbirth, and spends months recovering afterward. Logically, children should bear their mother’s name. The custom of naming children after their fathers is a patriarchal relic that denies recognition of the mother’s sacrifice. The patriarchal tradition to name children after their fathers is an egregious historic wrong.
Historically, women were barred from education and employment for a reason: money. If women could earn their own income, they would have less need for men, making them harder to subjugate into the roles of wife, mother, and caretaker.
In the household, women are burdened with countless responsibilities and tasks that many men do not want to assume. To ensure women remain in these roles, men historically eliminated alternative paths for women, such as access to education or professional opportunities. This system traps women in economic dependence, effectively succeeding in reducing them to property.
This structure ensured that a woman seeking a comfortable life could only achieve it through servitude to a man. With no rights, no independence, and no escape, women were forced into what can only be described as a modern form of indentured servitude, a life dictated by patriarchal systems designed to maintain male dominance.
Even when women manage to break free from financial dependence and enjoy life on their own terms, they are subjected to damaging assumptions. A woman who buys a new car, travels for leisure, or acquires property is often met with speculation that her success came through sexual favors from a man.
The default assumption in many societies is that a woman cannot achieve financial success independently. Instead of being credited for her hard work and determination, she is accused of having “a man behind her wealth.” This mindset reinforces the deeply rooted patriarchal belief that women cannot earn or possess wealth without male intervention.
Contact Author: DasBuchanan@outlook.com
Amnesty International cites Jamaica, other nations for failing to end ban on abortion
Buggery, abortion laws won’t be changed during constitutional reform process – Malahoo Forte
Equal pay for work of equal value
https://www.un.org/en/observances/equal-pay-day
Labeling Women As ‘Emotional’ Undermines Their Credibility, New Study Shows
Scientists Identify Why Girls Often Mature Faster Than Boys
Homicide leading cause of death for pregnant women in U.S.
https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/homicide-leading-cause-of-death-for-pregnant-women-in-u-s/
One woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by their intimate partner or family member