re: #6 iceweasel

Well, we’re a woman-hating culture world.

Adjusted. And how bad it gets is a function of the culture/society in question. The two worst scenarios for women tend to be:

1) Rigid, fundamentalist, authoritarian cultures (usually theocracies, though not always - as demonstrated by brutal tribal customs in certain parts of the Third World that predate organized religion stepping in)

2) Societies in which law and order have broken down completely (e.g. Somalia and post-earthquake Haiti - heartbreaking story about the latter aired on ABC World News earlier tonight).

It pretty much goes without saying that women in the west are the luckiest in the world (relatively speaking), but only as long as we stave off either of the possibilities above (#1 is rapidly gaining strength in many Southern states, and #2 is a risk as well, if economic conditions get bad enough).

_{(I’m not ignoring your other points, by the way - there’s just so much to discuss on this issue I can’t possibly fit it all in one post!)}