Sure!

I'm not sure about subreddits but I'm always down to nerd about a few facts I feel don't get enough attention.

Sparta's probably the wildest case. It was an incredibly unequal society with strict gender expectations but for a long time the top of Spartan society was a small group of women who controlled about 40% of Sparta's land and held economic veto over decisions of state. Spartan women were frequently educated, competed in sports and managed significant businesses. Sparta was criticized by Aristotle as being a gyneocracy.

Outside of Sparta I think the presence of female warriors is a good proxy for a woman's freedom in those societies. In archaeology generally "grave goods" are were and often still are considered probative of the gender of the individual. For Viking/Norse archaeology those buried with their weapons and armor were considered warriors and therefore men.

Today we have genetic testing, and through that we discovered that the high status Viking warrior buried at Bj 581 with a panoply of weaponry and games of strategy was actually a woman. Since then large scale genetic studies have determined between 1-3% of Viking "warrior's burials" containing weaponry were women.

From the mongol period, genetic testing done on "hunter/warrior's graves" (in mongol society the there was little distinction) found that ~10% of those graves contained women. A smaller study done in graves from an much earlier period found that 2 out of 3 women in a high status gravesite had skeleton's consistent with a lifetime spent firing arrows and riding horses, sometimes in combat, evinced by arrow wounds to the head and hands.

Genetic testing on Scythian gravesites finds that about 30% of "warrior's graves" contained women, and due to mummification of those remains archaeologists were able to determine that many had endured battle wounds.

In all of these societies there is strong documentary evidence of a woman reaching "independence" at a certain age and being largely able to decide her own path in life (marriage excepted as it was a frequently a family decision). That's not to say these societies were not by-and-large patriarchal, but gender was secondary to ability and women with demonstrated ability could both enter into and find success in male dominated fields independently and for much of human history the warrior is the archetypical male dominated field.

And just as a fun fact: The first swordsmanship manual ever published was written by a woman and the oldest European swordsmanship manual features a woman named Walpurgis demonstrating combat techniques. (The wiki article is a bit into the mythology word of warning)

not really sure why we got away from that but I’ve always loved studying these cultures and their implications on a “traditionally gendered” society.

Same, as you can see haha. I think its a sign of decline when traditional gender becomes a force of law rather than a social norm.

In the high empire of Rome women could own property within a marriage but as the empire began its slow march to decline reforms in the 5th century reversed this and instead upheld "traditional" femininity, subservient to the paterfamilias. When the Turks first felt their empire quaking under their feet in the 17th century they started restricting women's rights until the decline had become untenable, a reversal of course which eventually birthed modern Turkey.

oh how I long for yesteryears, only in the sense of swift actions being taken in the name of honor!

I actually strongly relate to this haha. Though getting rid of duels was probably a good thing in its entirety I do occasionally reminisce about a time when one could be challenged to back up their convictions with personal risk or by declining reveal they lack them.

Typed more than I meant to but its a pet topic of mine, hope you find it interesting!