Most societies throughout history, including most European societies, are ruled by men. Why is this? My uninformed idea is that if men are on average stronger, then they would have had an upper hand going all the way back to when our society was little more than a troupe of monkeys, just like how gorillas are ruled by males. Did this simply continue while we became smarter just due to the momentum and the relative ease of maintaining the status quo? That there is an unbroken line of patriarchy from the time before we were actually human? I know there are many examples of female rulers in Europe, and other societies that are actual matriarchies, but I'm wondering about the broader trends that gave rise to the lopsided number of patriarchal societies.