I was speaking of homosexuals—I'm well aware of how women, particularly upper-class women, were treated in ancient Athens, although Athenian customs were not necessarily representative of ancient Greece as a whole.
Beware of that word 'value.' It's not the same thing as equality. There were and are cultures where women were certainly 'valued,' which is one reason some powerful men amass large collections of them, much like gems or gold, to name a few other things people have valued more than human life, while cheerfully sending hordes of men off to die in battle or even labor. Rights, however, are another matter.
But, if we're going to talk 'value' as measured by monetary compensation, what sex has the most top paid athletes* is nowhere near the issue to me that the inequity between the pay given, say, male and female actors is, since it cannot be argued that the exact same job is being done by either gender (and sometimes women do it backwards—here's to you, Ms. Rogers!). It says more about our culture, too—people will apparently pay more, or go more times to see their favorite male actor than their favorite female actor in a given film. That's what's being claimed, in a round-about way, in any case.
Then there's the startling fact that suchlike as athletes, actors, and musicians are highly paid at all, idolized they way they are, or enjoy the social and political influence they do. But that's another subject.
*I think part of what sport is pays what is, and will always be, fad. Well, except for the hope that someone will be badly injured or killed while the audience watches. That 'fad' seems to be here to stay, having been around for a few millennia now. Take a look at what sports are truly high-pay, and how often permanent injury or death can occur while playing at a professional level, and I think you'll see a concurrence (except for soccer; that one I can't figure out). Anyway, this is paired by a certain squeamishness; apparently it's okay to see men get killed in the boxing ring, but not women. Many people watching female boxing don't even want to see the fighters bleed, or their faces become deformed by bruises. In other words, we 'value' women too much to see them come to bodily harm, and thus deny them a chance at the big bucks. Go figure.
