Actually, mercifully, that's not true. It's gone on for the past 6-9K years which is when patriarchy first eclipsed the peaceful egalitarian cultures that populated the world until that time. Prior to patriarchy, women were revered, respected, and treated as equals. Balance between the masculine and the feminine was a central tenet of society and the main deity was the Divine Ancestress. This doesn't mean there were no instances of male violence against women, but it wasn't an inherent part of the culture the way it is now.

The good news about that is that if we move away from the dominance based hierarchies of patriarchy towards a more partnership-oriented culture, as the Danes have, for example, we can embrace more gender balance and less violence against women.