Societies have been ruled by men for centuries,except a few matriarcal societies which have succeeded to survive too.
In general, women all over the world have been submissive,and I would say sometime "in appearance".
Women in polygamist societies or societies like in Japan, where we saw of it described in the movie: "The Geisha",for example are still in charge of their lives in a way.
Women, unlike men, have a power of resistance, they are far more resilient to pain,which they experiment right away in giving birth.
Women in concentration camps, for another example were even gaining weight in certain cases,which kind of protected them from more harm.
Women, even uneducated,in the larger sense of the term,had a powerful hand on their immediate families. They learned everything there was to know that men had no clue about. Women as servants, as prostitutes,as uneducated personas in the homes,still have the intuition,a power and a knowledge that men were unaware of. They also had the power of birth and of the continuation of the human specie.
Men thought for a long time that they were superior,but take away all the women behind those men: the ones for pleasure, the ones to serve, the ones to give birth,the ones to clean and submit and hear confidences on the pillow, and the world of men would crumble.
Do I make sense, I am not sure, I am just writing on the spur of the moment.
I am happy to be a woman,cultivated or not,oppressed or free,in the outdoors or confined.