Woah, amandalouise, things like that really happened? That is quite terrible. And no, I am not American, I do live in quite a patriarchal society but not as severe as you described. I think our ways are in many ways similar to yours, only with a bit less religious extremes.
However, I do see your point. Things like these variate from one place to another. I wasn't really trying to do anything about it, for me, this is mostly a thing of the past, something that happened and occasionally comes up in my thinking. I just thought I might share and see what other people think about it. Thank you for your input, it was very educational