Great Invasions

The Great Invasions are presented as a major break in the history of women’s condition: rather than a gradual change, they put civilization itself into question, overturning economic, social, and political arrangements and leaving women to bear part of the upheaval.

Historical rupture

In Simone de Beauvoir’s account, the Great Invasions interrupt any idea that women’s social position evolved continuously. The upheaval reaches even Roman law, which comes under the influence of Christianity, while the peoples described as barbarians impose their own laws in the centuries that follow. The importance of the period lies in this convergence of political disruption and changing legal authority: women’s situation is altered as the structures around them are overturned.

Religious and legal consequences

Christian ideology becomes one strand in the subsequent history of women’s oppression. The Gospels’ message of charity extends to women as well as to other disadvantaged groups, and women are among those who embrace the new religion most passionately. In early Christianity, women who submit to the Church receive a degree of respect and testify as martyrs alongside men. Yet religious participation remains unequal: women worship in secondary roles, and deaconesses are authorized for practical service, such as caring for the sick and helping the poor.

The account also stresses the limits within Christianity’s recognition of women. Marriage is described as requiring mutual fidelity, but the wife is expected to be subordinate to her husband. Through Saint Paul, an antifeminist tradition grounded in the Old and New Testaments is affirmed, making women’s self-effacement and reserve part of the religious prescription. The Great Invasions therefore serve not as a single event with a neatly bounded aftermath, but as the threshold to centuries in which political transformation and Christian authority help shape women’s subordination.