Actually, they did anyhow (as did Black Americans) even when they weren't allowed, couldn't go to university, had their inventions stolen, etc. They still did a HUGE amount. Most major household appliances were invented by women, as were all sorts of other useful and practical things. Comptuter programming was invented by a woman, as just one example.
We can't know what might have happened if things had been different in the past couple thousand years, but we do know what it was like before then — and we already had “civilization” before patriarchy came along. FYI, the opposite of patriarchy isn't matriarchy - there's never been such a thing although there have been many matrilineal cultures. The opposite is egalitarian cultures where personal autonomy is combined with a feeling of responsibility for the greater group in a way that does not exert control or cause dependencies.
I've never claimed to be infallible. In fact, I often note that I'm open to new perspectives and information and to be educated about things I don't know that much about, but when it comes to understanding what is going on in our culture and which parts are history and which parts are fable, I am very well educated and knowledgable.
I am honestly very happy to hear that you have a good and purposeful life. I wish you continued health and happiness, but you are the one who challenged my essay and said that it seemed to be an "UNLIKELY event that they (men) would see a problem with their socialization." I simply replied that I wanted to appeal to their sense of self-interest because it's very well documented that these sorts of norms are incredibly harmful to men (as well as most everyone else around them).
You then proceeded to try to make first one case and then another for why things were never going to change and I pointed out to you how ahistorical that is that we can make major cultural shifts, and how literally insane it is that men would prefer to cling to ways of being that are making them both anti-social, but more importantly, miserable and even suicidal. I get that the average guy on the street might not be very aware of all of that, but nonetheless, when they do learn of it, more often than not, rail against it - just as you did.
I've still yet to hear any sort of logical explanation for why so many men are wanting to make that incomprehensible choice.
