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The adjective woman-ridden means: dominated by a woman or by women.
A past participle of the verb ride, ridden combines with nouns to form adjectives meaning: afflicted, affected or dominated by something or by someone specified.
For example, the compound mist-ridden occurred in the following from By the Severn Sea, published in The Bristol Times and Mirror (Bristol, England) of Thursday 12th June 1902 [page 5, column 7]:
Sit out in the late evening on the high ground, and watch with mingled astonishment and delight the broad hand of gold, a true path of glory, that the setting sun leaves behind it on the brown waters of the estuary; linger yet awhile, and feed your eyes on the deep afterglow which lights up the mist-ridden hills of Wales.
The compound woman-ridden occurred, for example, in the following from When husbands revolt, by the British author Barbara Cartland (1901-2000), published in The Birmingham Mail (Birmingham, Warwickshire, England) of Tuesday 17th May 1960 [page 8, column 9]:
The United States has been woman-ridden for years. The State of Matriarchy across the Atlantic is also the country with a tragically high rate broken marriages.
The U.S.A. cult of what uneasy and angry male critics call “Momism”—the supremacy of the Mother Figure both inside and outside the home—has produced juvenile delinquency which makes our own Teddy boys and girls look like members of a Sunday school outing.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the adjective woman-ridden that I have found:
1-: From a transcript of the debate on the conduct of the Duke of York that took place in the House of Commons on Tuesday 14th March 1809—transcript published in The Morning Herald (London, England) of Wednesday 15th March 1809 [page 2, column 3]:
—Context: The reference is to the scandal of the alleged involvement of the Duke of York, the King’s second son and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, in the sale of commissions by his former mistress, Mrs Mary Anne Clarke:
Mr. Crocker stated, that […] the House ought to enquire minutely into the very least circumstances. If the Duke was innocent, they ought not to be afraid to say so; and if he was guilty, he deserved much more than was proposed by the most severe of the propositions that had been made to the House. No question of delicacy therefore ought to check them in their enquiries on this subject. […] This he could only say, that was the evidence of Mrs. Clark to be relied on in all its extent, his Royal Highness, instead of being entitled to the indulgence of the House, had shewn himself to be the most woman-ridden ruffian that ever existed.
2-: From A new and enlarged military dictionary, in French and English: in which are explained the principal terms, with appropriate illustrations, of all the sciences that are, more or less, necessary for an officer and engineer (London: Printed for T. Egerton, 1810), by the army officer Charles James (d. 1821) [Vol. 2, s.v. Ridden, page unnumbered, column 1]:
RIDDEN, the participle of to ride, which is familiarly used to signify the unmanly submission that some persons yield to others, viz.
Priest-Ridden, to be blindly subservient to the management, spiritual or other, of a person in holy orders. […]
[…]
Woman-Ridden, a man that is influenced, governed, and, consequently, rendered ridiculous, by female management, out of his domestic concerns, is said to be woman-ridden. This sometimes happens in the army. See White-Serjeant *.
* The entry White-Serjeant is as follows in Charles James’s dictionary [s.v. Serjeant, page unnumbered, column 2]:
White-Serjeant, a term of just ridicule in the British service, which is applied to those ladies, who, taking advantage of the uxoriousness of their husbands, neglect their household concerns, to interfere in military matters.
3-: From Tales, in Verse, and Miscellaneous Poems: Descriptive of Rural Life and Manners (Edinburgh: Printed by Michael Anderson, 1814), by the Scottish poet William Nicholson (1782-1849) [On Siller: page 142]:
But L—d, gif ance her head were hidden,
I’se ne’er again be woman-ridden;
My former frien’s shou’d a’ be bidden,
In social ring;
The dool-string I shou’d soon get rid on,
An’ dance an’ sing!
4-: From The Albigenses, A Romance (London: Printed for Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1824), by the Irish playwright, novelist and clergyman Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) [Vol. 3, chapter 7, page 121]:
“By Heaven, he speaks but truth,” said Adolfo, throwing himself on a seat that rocked with his force: “I must be spell-bound—something superhuman, whether of good or evil, guards her. Was it not that first night I spoke to her of love that a groan which chilled the blood was heard, and a sound that resembled the fall of an armed giant?”—“What, witch-ridden as well as woman-ridden?” said Gerand, with a sneer.
5-: From The Irish Sketch-Book (London: Chapman and Hall, 1845), by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) [Vol. 2, chapter 14, page 266]:
I heard of a gentleman arriving from ship-board at Kilrush on a Sunday, when the pious hotel-keeper refused him admittance; and some more tales, which to go into would require the introduction of private names and circumstances, but would tend to show that the Protestant of the north is as much priest-ridden as the Catholic of the south;—priest and old woman-ridden, for there are certain expounders of doctrine in our church, who are not, I believe, to be found in the church of Rome.
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