Ancient times consisted of laws, people and formation completely different from which the world we live in today. Women were born into a society where they were to abide by the eye of a man. During the Mesopotamian era the Hammurabi code was the written legal system for society based on gender and social status. Han Dynasty was a time period in which women abided by three ancient customs. Patriarchy plays a significant role in both ancient time periods.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." A paraphrase of a collection of 282 laws known as the Hammurabi's code. The King of Babylon King Hammurabi purposely established a collection of reasonable and unchanging set of laws that addressed common problems in his kingdom. Within these laws many were directed to household expectations in which dominancy of men over women was highly favored.
Ancient China consisted of a time period known as the Han Dynasty in which Ban Zhao was the leading female Confucian scholar. She wrote an article which addressed the obligations and moral instructions for women. Including three ancient customs to abide by; indicate that she is weak, practice labor and consider her primary duty to be industrious and value her duty to worship in the home. Illustrating a women's way of life is teaching of traditional rights and regulations. Picture this, a man's wife decides to go out, act a fool, abandon her home and belittle her husband, she would be prosecuted by him. For instance, "If a man's wife, living in her husband's house, has persisted in going out, has acted the fool, has wasted her house, has belittled her husband, he shall prosecute her. If her husband has said, "I divorce her," she shall go her way; he shall give her nothing as her price of divorce. If her husband has said, "I will not divorce her," he may take another woman to wife; the wife shall live as a slave in her husband's house." Mesopotamians believed in this, a woman shall respect her mate no matter what.