If you sometimes wonder how much progress women have made, read an interesting book called Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.
Pope Joan, a ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and eventually became the only female to serve as pope, lived during what definitely was the Dark Ages for women.
For example, when Pope Joan decided to start a school for girls, everyone was shocked.
“Surely, you know, Holiness, that the size of a woman’s brain and her uterus are inversely proportionate; therefore, the more a girl learns, the less likely she will ever bear children,” one of her advisors told her.