I would recommend this book as an introduction to the changing role of women within the ever mutating structure and organization of different forms of human societies, though I would also advise the reader to have a decent grasp upon major historical events and periods before delving into it since the author clearly only glosses through their essence, reducing them mostly to points that will support her argument rather than analyzing them thoroughly. (the reductions made in relation to early Islamic history during the period of Muhamad (PBUH) could have clearly been developed with one simple paragraph addressing the historical relevance of Mecca and the Kaabah, but I digress…)

I believe the main message of this book can quickly be summarized in one quick quote of Virginia Woolf (para as pessoas que me conhecem irl, não se assustem meus bens, a mulher ate que tem quotes interessantes):


“When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own