The social roles of women in modern Brazil have been shaped by an enduring legacy of patriarchal culture. Women in the cultures of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America have traditionally been regarded as inferior to men and subject to male dominance and control. These social norms were developed in Spain and Portugal during the medieval period and transferred into colonial contexts as these two cultures expanded across the globe during the seventeenth century. The exploitative labor systems used by these two imperial societies, coupled with the marginalization of indigenous peoples across Latin America, led to patriarchy becoming an entrenched aspect of modern Brazilian life.