There is a great deal of confusion (quite deliberately promoted, I am sure) between the concepts of being discriminated against, being non-equal, being hard-done-by, and being oppressed.

I recently read a piece by a history professor on Medium that may save me time in responding to you in detail. Half of it is in response to a mention of the ‘Code Civil’ of Napoleonic France and even that part helps illustrate how being treated differently is not necessarily oppression. The other half is possibly more useful for you.

Even today, there are ‘honour killings’ (and try as I have to understand them, I still can’t see the angle at which such things are honourable), there are rapes, murders, muggings, parental fraud, and attacks just for the ‘fun’ of it. These things I might see as systemic in western society were it not that they are illegal and typically punished severely .. except for parental fraud which only affects men so almost nobody cares about it even when it is uncovered.

Thankfully, in most western nations women are more likely to be killed or injured as a result of a car accident than they are to be raped, killed in a ‘lovers’ quarrel, mugged or attacked in the street (the same is not true with men). If women are oppressed in modern society, maybe we should be putting all our efforts into making travel safer: 300 years ago, if you were to tell people that travelling was a leading cause of unnatural death and injury for women, they would have had people (men) lining the roads every half mile to keep them safe.

Perspective, from one time to another or one culture to another, is important. Distinction between different and unfair is also important.