For the most part what you say would agree with. One of the most marked exceptions were the Etruscans. They totally baffled the Greeks, by having woman not only present at dinner, eating along side the men, but entering into the conversation, and being a part of it.

Another example would be the Jews, who when a woman married brought a dowry. That dowry belonged to her child(ren), not the husband. The husband had the use of it for his lifetime, but at her death, assuming she predeceased him, it went to HER children, not any others he might have conceived. In cases of divorce, it was returned to her father, to whose house she returned. To my knowledge this was also an exception to the standard rules in the ancient world.

Woman had some agency, depending on their heritage and situation, but that did vary greatly from place to place. Perseverance is a powerful tool, those who have it persist, those who do not, tend to wither and die.

It should be powerful, just as it would be to any group that had been enslaved by their neighbors but were now, at least theoretically free. Am thinking of the Somalis, who about 20% of them, had been servants/slaves to the remaining 80% for centuries. Color was no different, just being born to the wrong group was.