Not entirely sure if this is what you were alluding to, but this is a point that the "men need to step up" conservatives overlook. There was a time when you could slap a bitch and nobody cared, as long as she was your bitch. Even the lowly "beta male" could put his foot down and make his wife comply, without laying a finger on her, because both of them knew civilization was on his side if he did. The other side of "women are the fairer sex and we must protect them at all times" was "women must obey their protectors".