Cantarella also provides a balanced evaluation of one of the most controversial issues in women's history, the question of matriarchy in prehistoric Greece and Rome. She considers the original sources that have been used as evidence while taking into account the historical contexts in which modern theories of women's societies have been produces. By examining the structures of Greek and Roman society, reveals the points at which sexual roles became codified and came to be viewed as biological rather than cultural. The societies of ancient Greece and Rome, Cantarella demonstrates, were violently misogynistic. Yet in many respects the position of women in pagan antiquity was higher than it would be under Christianity.