How does this makes sense? The areas bordering Dorne, the Stormlands and the Reach, should have been influenced by it somewhat at least. The existence of Dorne as an isolated social entity for thousands of years makes no sense. Especially when, as a political and economic entity, they are far from isolated from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms.


And why is this so? Doesn't that fact that the Ironborn culture is even more misogynistic than its supposed real world parallel, with no real in story explanation for the same (prizing martial skills doesn't quite cut it, since any number of cultures IRL have done so and still not dis-empowered women to the same extent), bother you?


And there is no explanation in the books for why these two organizations disfavor women to such an extent.

None of those were causes for the lack of female empowerment. They were consequences. Yes, the lack of women in positions of power in the Church had its trickle down effect, but the lack of female empowerment did not start there, just as it did not start with barring them from inheriting land, or preventing them from attending Universities. The reasons for the lack of female power were a lot more complex, and the author basically wants us to take "medieval=misogyny" as a reasonable explanation.

And this is precisely what a lot of people object to in a lot of gritty fantasies. The lack of female agency is taken as a default state, one that requires no more subtle an explanation than "Dark Age Parallel!". Its true of Martin, from the little I read, its true of Bakker, and definitely true of Goodkind, who has even less excuse than these others.