condition was that of slavery.

In none of the countries of antiquity had women more liberty than in
Egypt; and yet what was her real condition there? Alexander remarked, it
is true, that though "the women promised obedience, men often yielded
it;" and, in many instances, it is equally true that the laws respecting
women were immeasurably in advance of those of neighboring nations; as,
for instance: Each wife had entire control of her own house. Among the
princes nearest the throne, women might take their places, and even
reign as sovereigns (a regency was frequently committed to their care);
or they might rule as joint sovereigns with another party; and as Isis
took rank above Osiris, so in such a case the woman might take rank
above the man.[A]

But notwithstanding this advance beyond other nations, they were still
spoken of, and in many instances not only treated as inferiors, but held
in hopeless bondage.

Among the Greeks, the wife was at times permitted to take part in public
assemblies, but never as the equal of her husband. She neither went with
him to dinner, when he dined out, nor sat at table with those whom he
invited to his house. Aristotle held that "the relation of men to women
is that of governor to a subject." Plato says: "A woman's virtue may be
summed up in a few words: for she has only to manage the house well,
keeping what there is in it, and obeying her husband." Again, in further
proof of the low estimation in which he held women, he says: "Of the men
that were born, such as are timid and have passed through life unjustly
are, we suppose, changed into women in their second generation."
Plutarch tells us that women "were compelled to go barefoot, in order to
induce them to keep at home."