Misogyny and Its Damaging Legacy

The Cambridge Dictionary definition of misogyny is: “feelings of hating women, or the belief that men are much better than women.” As explained in my Meaning of Life, Human Nature and Delusions book, sedentism and in particular agriculture and the societal changes related to them, including the origin of major organized religions, strongly contributed to many of the misogynistic narratives that became so prevalent in popular culture of agricultural states. In this chapter, I will focus on the types of discussions and data that I included in that book, which analyzed the history of misogyny and the scientific biases related to it, but with an emphasis of how those topics are linked to Darwin, his writings, and his influence on both the scientific community and the broader public.