Prior to Darwin, gender roles were enforced through the institutionalized interpretations of religion. Feminists who attempted to break out of these highly stratified and marginalized gender roles had to argue against structuralized-functional dogmatic doctrine which stated that gender roles were divinely determined. With the onset of the enlightenment and the industrial revolution instead of women being able to more easily break out of their traditional gender roles, they were faced with a dilemma created by the biases in male driven science. Instead of looking towards history from a perspective which would allow both women and men to have active roles, science has focused almost entirely on the "Male concern with male dominance in studies of humans and animals" (Zihlman, p. 76).
One of the biggest problems facing feminists through history has been the entrenchment of both religion and science in ideologies based on Aristotle. Aristotle viewed women as imperfect men. His views became the basis of western science and they were codified in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Not only did Aristotle posit that women were "misbegotten men," but he also stated that they had lighter and inferior brains (Tuana, 1993). This bias continues through almost all of classical, medieval, and modern religion, philosophy, and science.
Classical and modern depictions of evolution often completely ignore the role that women played in ancient societies. Illustrations of the states of evolution have entirely focused on the size, shape, and societal role of man. In the illustration below by A. Busetto we can see how this bias towards men has moved with humanity through history into the space age.
.
This exclusion of women further reinforces the view that women have only passive and reproductive roles, and that all progress in technology and biology are due to the influence of men. These views continue in modern anthropology with most of the milestones of human history being attributed to men.
