We're hostile--we women of today?

"Why are you women so hostile?"  I was annoyed at Julia's insensitive question. But for whatever reason Julia feels it her right to say whatever she feels like saying.  With little regard to what one would consider thoughtful consideration before opening her mouth. But anyone who knows Julia would expect little else.

I was at a loss whether to ignore or argue with her. How does one argue with such as she? Then and there or here and now.

My dear husband and I so frequently let the discussion of such matters degenerate to an argument in which I did become hostile. But consider---

Women from the beginning of recorded time (check when and where you can--but check) have been compelled to live as adjuncts to the men in their lives. With the exemption of the Amazons, whose existence is questionable, equality of the sexes is tenuous.

Across distance and time there have been those matriarchal tribes, but matriarchal lineage is far removed from matriarchal control. I neither want  nor need to give footnoted proofs.

Julia, and to a lesser degree Cartimandua and Tanaquil, question my assertions. Not rightly so. Think of them in their time and setting. Think of me and women like me in my time. And try to find a difference.  Did Margaret Truman face the problems of Nancy Garth? And who is Nancy Garth?  Point taken. Do the Bush twins have the uphill climb of the twin daughters of the off and on again employed factory worker? How do they differ from the weaver in the shop not so far from the royal house of Augustus? Or the widowed woman reduced to prostitution in Tanaquil's time?

They -- Julia, Tanaquil and Cartimandua-- see the world not just from their times, but from their positions. There is the oft offered, poorly thought out argument that the very biological demands of  women dictate their position in the scheme of things. They are the ones who give birth to the young, suckle the young. Such activity demands subservience.  Such thinking reduces me to hostile thoughts.

I am compelled to question, to doubt the easily spouted, argument that  Poor Nancy Garth, (mentioned above) whom you do not remember, struggling to keep a roof and food for her two children, the youngest two months old, is filling her proper place in the larger scheme of things.

Is it possible for Julia or Carti or Tanaquil to really understand the plot of Nancy? Do I really understand it? Or do I like so many across time and distance ignore it or at best pay it lip service?