Why Does the Myth Women Must Obey Husbands Persist?

Why does the myth that wives are subservient to their husbands remain prevalent? With Protestants it makes sense. You go to the Bible and get whatever you see fit from it, so you could come to that conclusion, sadly. But with Catholics, we don't do that. Yet, despite the lack of any passage saying "men lead their households and their wives must obey them" in the Catechism, this myth is somewhat popular among Catholics too. Why does this myth persist? What about it appeals to people? Why this law from the OT as opposed to other hideous OT laws? When did this start? Did it start with Protestants or does it date back further?

It dates back to the Roman and Greek household codes from the time of the New Testament where women and children were literally nothing more than the property of their spouses. It continues because of the sociological reason that to control society you must control the means of production, quite literally in the case of women, and in most Western societies men used force to establish hierarchies of men over women and the religions of the time went along and reinforced this.

Do you know much about how they reinforced it? Again, it's a bit popular with Catholicism and I think some Orthodox hold it, so did our faiths once teach that on the priest and theologian level?

Also, why do even people who believe women are equal to men and all that hold this obviously contradictory belief? It's hard to get away from ideas that people have woven into society but these ideas are so widely seen for how repulsive they are, it's hard to understand why a few people cling to this.

In my experience they reinforced it by emphasizing the wife's part in the passages about mutual submission and sacrifice and ignoring the call for husbands to sacrifice. In reality the NT had some pretty radical things to say about the relationship between husband and wife back in the day.

Because the BIBLE says so?

Ephesians 5:22-33King James Version (KJV)

22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

And Sola Scriptura illustrates my point perfectly by citing only the verses that talk about the wives and ignoring the very next verse that says "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her."

War Doctor wrote:In my experience they reinforced it by emphasizing the wife's part in the passages about mutual submission and sacrifice and ignoring the call for husbands to sacrifice. In reality the NT had some pretty radical things to say about the relationship between husband and wife back in the day.

Gotcha, thanks.

Submit and Love are completely different words.

Oh?