I mean something like a magical artifact that's tied to a family line so that it can only be used by that family. The legitimacy test part would be a side effect. I don't remember something like that in canon but it seems like something that could have been there.

 

Black Family tree tapestry?

 

At the risk of being controversial, the difference between men and women when it comes to violence is not just that men are physically stronger. Men are also more aggressive, being more inclined to take risks and seek out conflict for the satisfaction of being the top dog. Wizards therefore probably have a greater interest in martial magic than witches on average.

There are other gendered qualities which also produce inequality which the existence of magic does not eliminate. For example, men tend to over-estimate their own competence more than women, which results in them asserting leadership more often, all other things being equal. And generally, the person who takes the initiative to seize leadership keeps that role.

And then there are even more basic differences, like that fact that humans are hard wired to find deeper voices more authoritative and persuasive.

So I suspect that even in the wizarding world, where men and women have equal arms, there would be a certain level of historic inequality brought about by men's more martial attitude and higher likelihood to take it upon themselves to take the reins of leadership. Given that a woman leader in the 1700s was notable, not the historical norm since time began, this seems to have at least some canon backing. This inequality would continue in the present day via a preponderance of men in high-risk professions such as Aurors.

 

Well this conversation has a real risk of devolving into something it should not, but I think the main point me, Taure and others were trying to make is that gender imbalances are not only due to historical power imbalances, and so that a wizarding society in which men and women behaved interchangeably (even in something as banal as attitudes to casual sex) would not be very realistic.

 

Since Wizards and Witches are physically different from Muggles, I'm going to go ahead and say that I like the interpretation that Wizards and Witches have reduced sex drives due their magical nature. It's why the professors are so lenient when it comes to socialization at Hogwarts and why the population never booms. Thus, while sex is accepted as a normal thing, it is only engaged with in privacy, because it's not such a major part of their lives, relationships, and physical needs.

Honestly, I just hate sex in my fiction unless I'm specifically in the mood for it, so tend towards this interpretation.

 

Even with your tongue in your cheek, you've got a point. It's only agricultural and herding societies that obsess over paternity. When the father doesn't have some extra-genetic asset he's trying to pass to his offspring, human's don't seem to care.

A wizard only really needs his wand. And Neville showed us that handling your father's wand just . . . isn't a very magical experience.

A social-science reading of Harry Potter definitely supports lots of lemons.

 

Nope I'm pretty sure that women who sleep with lots of men would in fact still be called sluts or other derogatory terms, having women in places of power would only reinforce that tendency rather than lessen it. It isn't something that can simply and easily be put down to men, I'd even go so far as to say that most of the social consequences of such behavior are enforced by other women.

I've seen a lot of men who don't respect promiscuous women, but usually the people who go out of their way to ostracize and destroy promiscuous women are other women.

Any woman in leadership position seen(or perceived) to be promoting such behavior would promptly be torn to shreds(socially) by other women.