At one point in Netflix’s new documentary Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, one of its central figures, Justin Waller, who founded a construction company at the age of 24, looks out over the Miami skyline and declares that men “literally built society.”

The message is clear: men made the world; women did not.

That claim is not just offensive. It ignores history. It confuses who got the credit with who did the work. Women have always helped build society. They built it in ways the law often failed to recognize, the market often refused to reward, and history too often neglected to record. They built homes and businesses, schools and churches, communities and institutions. They raised children, stabilized families, sustained neighborhoods, started companies, led movements, and carried the invisible burdens that made the visible world possible.

And yes, they helped build the visible world too.

If the argument is about commerce, the numbers alone should end the debate: women own 14.2 million American businesses generating roughly $2.8 trillion in receipts. That is not symbolic participation. It is enterprise and risk-taking. It is wealth creation and........

© Time