ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part provides a most impressive account of the world's oldest prejudice: misogyny, and a tour de force of the history of sex and gender through the ages. It deals with a summary of the ideas promulgated by French feminist H. Cixous—ideas that ring as true. Under a patriarchal society women are reduced to a subsidiary role, marginalized by the central androcentric culture. Cixous called for women to demonstrate their unique voices, to write their experiences, and to honor their bodies. The part explores the impact of a patriarchal society on cultures in many parts of the world, during war, in literature, in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. It offers innumerable examples of the disparagement and degradation of women: violated and oppressed from the home, to the work place, to all facets of society in country.
