Women pre-Christianity in northern Europe and the Scandinavian counties were relatively equal to men in most areas, in work, in land ownership, in elected roles. Women in most parts of the world pre-Christianity had some level of autonomy but not much.

Once Christianity came in with its story line that Eve, a woman caused all of the world's problems, things for women went to hell in a hand basket and stayed there until some rights such as property ownership began to be gained for western white women in the mid to late 19'th century.

Now women in the US got the right to vote in what, 1914; yet my mother needed my father's signature to open a bank account. By the 50's there were improvements; the invention of the washing machine, electricity, etc., so the work level was less than prior ages, noticeably so even from my grandmother's time.

But I think the improvements only made the limitations more evident. Repression is not about what you have, it is about what you don't have:)