So it wasn't sexist that women were viewed as a possession ?
Lol
No wonder your wife divorced you 
Women were viewed as someone to protect and keep coddled. The women in the society were more valued than the men. The society was geared to oblige men to work and pay for their wife and children and protect them and give them security and stability. They were not obligations that women had. Women had different obligations.
Because you are not born into that time or intimate with that culture you "do not get it". What you read into things is a society of chauvinistic bigots "keeping the women down" and taking away their rights. That is because you are a bit of a dickhead.
It was a different time and both genders with forced roles. It is only when childhood diseases and female death in childbirth has been reduced (thanks I guess to discoveries of some men, ditto contraception pills, etc) that the standard of living and life expectancy has allowed for a change in society.
The need for a Father to give away the bride, the social obligations that were required and necessary back then because of the difficulties faced in society are simply not needed now. It was not sexist then. It was women and children being provided and protected in the best way socially for the level of healthcare, technology and such and whilst it is obsolete now, it was not a bad thing then.
Oh, and go fuck yourself with a cactus Adam
