In my generation at least, education before
the war, young girls were trained to LISTEN,
to be POLITE, not to contradict and to believe
that what men said was more important
than what THEY could say.1

It takes time to get over such instilled
self-consciousjess and self-depreciation.

Besides our latin countries carry both
the weights of Roman Tradition and of Catholi
cism religion which deeply influenced our
litterature, our philosophy and our be haviours.
Everyone agreed on onepout : the subordinate
role of women.

PERICLES, who gave his name to the most
brillant century in Greek civilization, the Vth
before Christ, said: The greatest honour
for a wmn is not to be spoken of".

And 20cis later, JJ Rousseau, one of
our most famous writers and specialist of chil
dren's educ. morever, still held the same views
and expressed the with almost the same words:

The dignity of a wmn is to stay unknown. Her only
glory lies in her husband's esteem and her family's
service. God created her to bear man's sin justice and to
serve him."

Between the 2, youone finds St Pl, the most famous
misogynist of the Christian world, a field
where there is much competition, and also
wrote:

A woman shld alwys carry a veil on
her face as a token of submissiveness. She should not
be abled to talk in the presence of men; No in Church".