I think Schopenhauer was pretty much spot on, but there are a ton of resources that are far more broad and also better than his brief exposition on women.

I think what happened is that as society evolved it outpaced our biology by much. Unfortunately, biological evolution is very slow and our society is moving forward way faster for it to catch up, think about all the technological advances we are making and how our bodies are coping with them (sitting on a desk in front of a PC all day, anyone?)

I think that the idea of women being equal to men and independent is an idealistic idea and dream that just can't happen because it would need for us as humans to actually change genetically (evolve) and that's obviously not going to happen any time soon unless we start intervening in our own biology using biological engineering, by being part manmade (cyborg) or something along those lines of manual change.

Of course, you have the argument that part of being human is being very good at adapting and that our brains are influenced more by how we are brought up than by inheritance (nurture vs. nature). I personally think that we are not that adaptable and that we are more influenced by nature than by nurture, especially when you think about the majority of people and not the lucky few who were born with smarter brains more capable of adapting to change (think the ability to learn and adapt is pretty much what intelligence is, isn't it?)

I think that what you're saying was particularly true of the Greeks and Romans. However, as a gay heretic in this sub, I am obliged to point out what the Christianization (and therefore the Puritanization) of our culture forces us to sweep under the rug. That is that, in those ancient cultures, women were not granted a monopoly on the male orgasm, and a significant percentage of male orgasms were obtained with other men. This Puritan-enabled female monopolization of male orgasms is closely related to the pedestalization of females and the romantic myth. One of the most effective ways of bringing down the price of pussy is to break the pussy monopoly. I'm gay. I've had pussy. It's good stuff and is an important part of a balanced sexual diet. But I won't pay the absurd price that it commands in our Puritan, pussy-monopoly culture.