It makes them intent on making sure you stay home and not be fully engaged in the world.

So there is a whole other side to this, and that is the active participation by women in these social norms. My good friend is a high school teacher. She has plenty of stories of teenage girls saying that they want to be a house wife when they grow up. Are their mothers teaching them this way of thinking? Women are a majority of the world. In the West, where opportunity and rule of law abound, they can only be kept down by themselves. If a religious leader tells you you have to be a virgin, laugh at him and point out to him that he's clearly jealous that he's not getting any high class pussy and walk away. Your body belongs to you, not him.

In the Islamic world and Sub-Saharan Africa its a whole different story, but even there women constitute a hugely complicit group. It is women who run the centers that circumcise girls, not men. Women are equally responsible for the lack of self esteem instilled in girls. When your mother forces you to get circumcised, of course you will think its the right thing, even though it feel like the worst thing ever.

Feminists--for whatever reason--seem to overlook this point. A patriarchy can only draw its power from women who actively participate in the status quo, and, in fact, actively engage in protecting it. Men are less than half the problem. For every religious leader who hems and haws about virgins, there are 1000 guys who would rather fuck a woman with some experience. But we don't have any power over mothers who teach their daughters that they aren't going to be successful if they aren't submissive and well groomed. That's on them.