The Netziv denies that men own their wives, as I assume Joseph is trying to “prove” with his continuously saying men are “masters” over their wives. And which point I refuted by showing that “masters” does not technically mean that others, whether they are wives, students or Yisroeilim are “subjegated” to the whims of their “masters” and obligated to biddings of their supposed their “masters” i.e. husband’s, Rabbis, and Cohanim, indiscriminately…The word “masters” is an English word. The original Loshen Hakodesh words that can translate to word “master” come in many forms, but the point is that these words define a PART of a relationship and doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire relationship revolves around a “master” subjegating his “servants” rather that within certain relationships there are certain rights one has, or certain rules that one must obey, to be able for the relationship to function correctly.
The Netziv says that proof that the husband does not own the wife is the fact that a husband is obligated to support a wife (Kesubos 58b) however a wife can opt out of this partnership by declaring herself independent (so that her wage will not have to go to her husband) and the husband is not obligated to support her anymore. This is in direct contrast to a slave who has no opt out options of declaring himself financially independent.
The Netziv says that a husband only owns SPECIFIC rights to his wife, these rights I will not bring up here, one can do their own research if they desire to do so. However, these rights have nothing in common with a women being “subservient” to her husband, as Joseph would like us to believe.
Many Rishonim state specifically that husband’s do not own their wives, for example see Rashba on kiddushin in 6b.
I am NOT a Torah scholar, nor do I have the time at this point in time to look up the MANY sources on this issue. However, I am simply bringing these sources now just to show that there are out there.
If I have more time, I will more research.