A rant on gender stereotypes

[John V]

The fact that it's self-reinforcing, i.e., with positive feedback, could mean that small more or less random fluctuations gave rise to it.

In that case we'd expect fairly equal numbers of male- and female-led societies and egalitarian societies. What we see is that the vast majority of societies in history have favored men over women. This indicates that there is a biological aspect which began these laws and customs. The laws and custom may then have been self-reinforcing.