We can't observe gods, but women exist empirically, and men have had to live with them all along. If the resulting body of experiences with women have condensed into a patriarchal tradition which puts women in a bad light - well, you can't blame that on theology, now, can you?

Of course you can. Theology is very easily observable. One can ask what the theology should be blamed on, but that goes back to the dawn of history and is but speculation and fog.

So here's some speculation for why patriarchal traditions are so prevalent, which I suppose has been at the back of my mind for as long as I've been aware of such issues, although I've never seen it stated so starkly as I am about to.

1. Men are physically stronger than women.

2. Without modern science, paternity cannot be observed, only enforced (see (1)).

It seems to me that these two facts are a sufficient explanation for the entire phenomenon of both religious and secular suppression of women. Men have been able to, men have wanted to, men have done. Might makes might. "If you want a picture of the past, imagine a man's boot stamping on a woman's face – for ever."

Explanations of how all women really want to be controlled by a strong man are window dressing, excreted by the virtual outcome pumps in the heads of those who find current mores uncongenial to continuing in that way, and who nowadays must use ideas as ammunition instead of stones.