I am reading a book about poisons throughout history, and it mentions that throughout the 1800’s women were stereotyped as devious people who would murder men using poisons for their own gain, while it was socially acceptable for men to beat their wives and be unfaithful.

This struck me as weird, both because the book has not commented on gender issues up until this point, and because it sounds completely wild that men could essentially treat their wives like property with zero repercussions.

Still, this book was written by a historian and it is a perspective that I have heard from feminists as well. I was wondering if I could get some nuance on it here.