Everyone is familiar with the traditional image of the stern

nineteenth-century patriarch. He ruled his family with a rod of

iron, beating the children mercilessly and throwing the servants

out on the street when they tiresomely got pregnant by him.

Obviously, these images are exaggerated stereotypes, but the man

was certainly always the undisputed boss within the family and

men held all the most important positions in society – all Freud ’ s

tutors and all the people he looked up to were men. Even in the

history books and the myths and legends he was taught at school

practically all the heroic fi gures were male. By contrast, women

tended to lead very restricted, boring lives, revolving around

childrearing and domestic affairs. This, in combination with the

strong taboos about sex, meant that women ’ s psychology was as

yet very poorly understood.

Everyone is familiar with the traditional image of the stern

nineteenth-century patriarch. He ruled his family with a rod of

iron, beating the children mercilessly and throwing the servants

out on the street when they tiresomely got pregnant by him.

Obviously, these images are exaggerated stereotypes, but the man

was certainly always the undisputed boss within the family and

men held all the most important positions in society – all Freud ’ s

tutors and all the people he looked up to were men. Even in the

history books and the myths and legends he was taught at school

practically all the heroic fi gures were male. By contrast, women

tended to lead very restricted, boring lives, revolving around

childrearing and domestic affairs. This, in combination with the

strong taboos about sex, meant that women ’ s psychology was as

yet very poorly understood.

Everyone is familiar with the traditional image of the stern

nineteenth-century patriarch. He ruled his family with a rod of

iron, beating the children mercilessly and throwing the servants

out on the street when they tiresomely got pregnant by him.

Obviously, these images are exaggerated stereotypes, but the man

was certainly always the undisputed boss within the family and

men held all the most important positions in society – all Freud ’ s

tutors and all the people he looked up to were men. Even in the

history books and the myths and legends he was taught at school

practically all the heroic fi gures were male. By contrast, women

tended to lead very restricted, boring lives, revolving around

childrearing and domestic affairs. This, in combination with the

strong taboos about sex, meant that women ’ s psychology was as

yet very poorly understood.