Throughout history, regimes noted for their repressiveness and official violence have made the return of women to their "traditional" (or subservient) place in a male-headed family a priority. We see this in religious sects of many persuasions. Even in democracies such as the United States, those who believe in the international violence of "holy wars" against "Godless enemies" oppose equal rights for women. They have not only organized to defeat the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution, but they still oppose ratification of UN conventions to protect the rights of women and children. Such groups have even lobbied for a "Family Protection" Act that would cut funding for battered women’s shelters — only protecting a family structure where male "heads of household" can legitimately exercise violent and despotic control.
The connection between rigid male domination in the family and despotism in the state also helps explain customs such as the "honor killings" of girls and women by members of their own families, and the stoning of women for alleged sexual offenses, found especially in chronically violent areas where terrorism against defenseless civilians is seen as legitimate and honorable. It is through terror in the family that both women and men learn to accept rule by terror as "normal," be it in their own societies or against other tribes or nations.
Despite the rhetoric about valuing and loving children, most of the nations of the world — both wealthy and poor — have failed to invest their economic resources in ensuring that children are safe, well fed, and cared for.
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