Women tend to live longer than men. I believe in the US, their life expectancy is about 7 years higher than that of men. Clearly this is unfair. Suppose a bunch of people had, at some time long in the past, gotten really, really pissed off about this and started a gender war. The eventual treaty that was agreed upon would be largely forgotten, as would the fighting. But th results of that treaty would have become a major part of our culture and most people would take it for granted, making it largely impossible to stop it.
So, the treaty said that in order to make up for the unfairness of their increased life expectancy, those extra 7 years must be dedicated to service. In short, women must, at some point from the age of 18 to the age of 25, enslave themselves for 7 years. The leeway in age allowed women to avoid interruption of any current obligations (e.g. college): There would be a cultural expectation that women would normally enslave themselves by age 21). Since it was a gender war, the enslavement was always to a man (but in some cases the man's wife would be the de facto mistress). It would be thought of mentally much like school: You might or might not like it, but it was something you had to do.
So, the treaty said that in order to make up for the unfairness of their increased life expectancy, those extra 7 years must be dedicated to service. In short, women must, at some point from the age of 18 to the age of 25, enslave themselves for 7 years. The leeway in age allowed women to avoid interruption of any current obligations (e.g. college): There would be a cultural expectation that women would normally enslave themselves by age 21). Since it was a gender war, the enslavement was always to a man (but in some cases the man's wife would be the de facto mistress). It would be thought of mentally much like school: You might or might not like it, but it was something you had to do.
