Patriarchy has been a consistent feature of all civilizations. In recent decades, it has been a subject of intense interest to historians operating within local, national, and global contexts alike. They have sought to uncover how patriarchy emerged and changed over time; how it was expressed and experienced; what mix of opportunities and limitations it has afforded to women; and how different cultural traditions defined appropriate gender roles and gender identities, both feminine and masculine. But also of interest was the issue of pushback. To what extent were some women, at least, able to resist the oppressive features of patriarchy, to take advantage of its paternalistic dimensions, and to occupy nontraditional roles in their societies?

In exploring such questions, historians face a major problem: the scarcity of sources written by women themselves, especially in the premodern era. Furthermore, most of the female-authored sources we do have derive from elite women. As a result, scholars must sometimes make careful use of documents written by men, often “reading between the lines” to discern the perspectives of women. The documents and images that follow explore various expressions of patriarchy and the women’s voices that emerged within them in several of the second-wave civilizations.