In spite of this, it is likely that then as now men had the advantage of physical force; in the age of the clubs and wild animals, in the age when resistance to nature was at its greatest and tools were at their most rudimentary, this superiority must have been of extreme importance. In any case, as robust as women may have been at that time, the burdens of reproduction represented for them a severe handicap in the fight against a hostile world: Amazons were said to mutilate their breasts, which meant that at least during the period of their warrior lives they rejected maternity. As for ordinary women, pregnancy, giving birth, and menstruation diminished their work capacity and condemned them to long periods of impotence; to defend themselves against enemies or to take care of themselves and their children, they needed the protection of warriors and the catch from hunting and fishing provided by the males. As there obviously was no birth control, and as nature does not provide woman with sterile periods as it does for other female mammals, frequent pregnancies must have absorbed the greater part of their strength and their time; they were unable to provide for the lives of the children they brought into the world.
尽管如此，彼时同今日一样，男人确实在体力上占据优势；在大棒加野兽的时代，在自然阻力达到最高点、工具最简陋的时代，这种优势具有极大的重要性。无论如何，不管女人当时会是多么强壮，对她们来说，在与敌对世界作斗争时，生殖的束缚代表着严重的障碍：据叙述，亚马孙割掉她们的乳房，这意味着至少她们在战士的生涯里拒绝怀孕。至于普通女人，怀孕、分娩、月经削弱着她们的劳动能力，宣判了她们长期的低效无能；为了抗击敌人，为了保存自身和后代，她们需要战士的保护，需要从狩猎和捕鱼的男人那里得来战利品；由于她们显然无法控制生育，由于大自然并不赋予她们不育期，就像对待其他雌性哺乳动物那样，重复怀孕占据了她们大部分精力和时间；她们不能保证自己生下来的孩子能存活。
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