Avot179

9:
The Hebrew which we have rendered "children's chatter" can be understood in more than one way. Clearly, one meaning must be "chatting with children". Another possible meaning is "talking childishly". Obviously, if a sage acts according to this second meaning his behaviour would be seen as inappropriate by his colleagues. However, the first meaning presents us with a problem. Essentially, not only is there nothing wrong with talking with children, but in many circumstances it is a veritable mitzvah to do so. For example, in Mishneh Torah [Talmud Torah 2:1] Rambam states that

10:
In the days of the sages which synagogue one attended was a very serious matter. Many of the synagogues belonged to workers' guilds and other such organizational associations. Clearly, some of these synagogue must have attracted people who would sit and chatter throughout the service rather than dedicate themselves to their prayers. One could hardly concentrate on one's devotions in such an atmosphere. In a much later age Rambam [Responsa 256] even abolished the silent Amidah on Shabbat and festivals because of such people:

My colleague, Marty Berman, writes:

I certainly accept that for whatever reason the sages of the time thought that polygamy was wrong, but what is the basis for your statement that it was the inequality of the situation that bothered them and not simply the idea of a man having more than one wife? Indeed, the idea of the "heter meah rabbanim" to take a second wife would suggest that it was not the inequality of the situation that bothered them. I have no desire to argue the correctness of you later assertions, although I do disagree. But I am curious about the above and would love to hear a response to that.

I respond:

I believe that I addressed this question in the very same shiur. I wrote that Rabbenu Gershom managed to get yet another takkanah passed: no woman shall be divorced without her expressed consent freely stated before the Bet Din: Rotzah ani – I consent. And, in response to another query, in the following shiur I wrote: The takkanah of Rabbenu Gershom seeks to make human marriage an imitation of the 'divine marriage' – if such an expression is permissible. Being human we are not always able to live up to the ideal, which is why the takkanah leaves a loophole for special circumstances – permission for a bigamous marriage with the assent of one hundred rabbis: but the ideal remains the ideal in almost 100% of the cases. The heter me'ah rabbanim is that loophole. But the agreement of one hundred rabbis from different places would be required to permit a man to marry a second wife while his marriage to a first wife was still valid. Rabbenu Gershom did not make it easy to circumvent the requirement of the woman's consent. Indeed, he made it very difficult.