“Until the early 20th century, dying in childbirth was a real and regular risk.”
Which is men’s fault how exactly? A natural pitfall of life isn’t “oppression”.
“One also has to keep in mind what happened to those women without protection from “marauding” male armies.”
Yes, but this wasn’t something done to women by their own society, but by the enemies of both the men and women of their society. Their men were out there fighting and dying to prevent that from happening to the women. Maybe if they had known that, instead of gratitude for their sacrifice, the fairer sex would try to blame them for it later on, they wouldn’t have bothered.
Stop being so defensive, I didn’t say it was men’s fault, but this author presents male life expectancy as SO much lower than womens when it’s due to many factors besides war. Such as; males propensity to be more violent/aggressive, to take risks, and to work at dangerous jobs.
For one thing, civilians have also borne the brunt of wars effects. While being in combat is terrible, civilians face the depredations of enemy troops, rape, pillaging, starvation, expulsion and exposure. Militaries long ago figured out that they needed to provide good conditions for their troops in order to be effective. The military will provide food, medical care, transportation, etc., that civilians may not receive at all, or only after the fighting man’s needs are seen to.