Patriarchy Essay ⋆ Essays on Controversial Topics ⋆ EssayEmpire

Patriarchy has many different interpretations, depending on the theoretical and disciplinary orientation of the writer or speaker. Within anthropology, for example, patriarchy defines a condition in which male members of a society predominate in positions of authority. In female-dominated societies, the term matriarchy is used. For feminists, however, patriarchy has a different, and more political, connotation. Here, patriarchy refers to the systematic oppression and exploitation of women vis-a-vis their male counterparts. Patriarchy therefore refers more specifically to a relational and gendered process of dominance (by men) and subservience (of women). This dominance involves three basic forms of power: control over women’s labor, control over women’s reproductive abilities, and control over women’s affections.

Given the many different types of feminism, varying accounts attempt to explain the origins, meaning, and practice of patriarchy. In general, however, all see patriarchy as resulting from the existence of gendered relations within all societies. Gender, as an organizing concept, imparts an ordering of society based on perceived differences between men and women. Thus distinguished, gendered norms construct appropriate positions and responsibilities for women and men and allocate resources differentially based on these divisions. Societies characterized by male dominance of positions and resources are described as patriarchal.

As a concept, patriarchy was most explicitly analyzed by Marxist feminists during the 1970s and 1980s. They identified a material basis to patriarchy, arguing that in capitalist societies, men control women’s labor power through, for example, the institution of monogamous heterosexual marriage and the control over women’s reproductive rights.

Depending on their viewpoint, feminists take different approaches to understanding, analyzing, and working to overturn patriarchy. Liberal feminists, for example, insist that gender equality and justice will occur when the rules of society are made fair and when women are no longer discriminated against in social or occupational settings. This approach was clearly evident in the work of first-wave feminists whose goal was to achieve equal rights for women, most saliently in the right to vote. Marxist feminists, conversely, maintain that it is not possible to eliminate sexism without also addressing classism within society. Rather than working within the existing system, as proposed by liberal feminists, Marxist feminists maintain that women’s liberation will only result following the replacement of a capitalist system with a socialist system. Last, radical feminists emphasize the complex intersections of not only sexism and classism, but also, among other things, racism and ableism (discrimination against people with disabilities). Radical feminists also highlight the social and cultural, and not just economic and political, institutions that oppress and exploit women.

Patriarchy is an important concept in connecting gender to women’s inequality in society. As a concept, however, it is not without its share of critics. Some critique the concept of patriarchy as too simplistic and too reductive, arguing that many early conceptualizations of patriarchy assumed the practice to be universal, thus ignoring important geographic and temporal variations in the oppression and exploitation of women. This led to a false view of patriarchy as static and unchanging. Post-structuralists and postmodernists criticize the patriarchy concept as limited to a structured set of inequalities, questioning not only the use of preexisting categories such as male and female but also the theoretical understanding of power itself.

Bibliography:

Lerner, Gerda. 1999. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Pan Macmillan.
Walby, Sylvia. 1991. Theorizing Patriarchy. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

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