In the nineteenth century, the German philosopher, journalist, and socialist Friedrich Engels, who famously collaborated with Karl Marx, had already drawn connections between the economic and political dominance of men and their control of female sexuality. He described it dramatically as “the world historical defeat of the female sex.” He went on, “The man took command in the home also; the woman was degraded and reduced to servitude, she became the slave of his lust and a mere instrument for the production of children.”
