>Gender roles have remained pretty static throughout European history I've generally heard the inverse statement. Compare the women in Chaucer to the women in

>Gender roles have remained pretty static throughout European history I've generally heard the inverse statement. Compare the women in Chaucer to the women in Shakespeare, and you'll immediately notice a huge difference in behaviour. Usually, people say that women's rights took a precipitous dive in the 1600s, with the invention of things like brutal punishments for 'nagging', and so on. Which would fit with the idea it was related to primitive accumulation. I don't really agree with the grandparent thesis, but I think the chronology is correct.