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Patriarchy is a social system in which men typically hold authority and privilege. In anthropology, it refers to a family or clan structure where the father or eldest male holds supremacy within the family, while in feminist theory, it encompasses a broader social structure where men collectively dominate societal norms and institutions. [1] [2] [3]
Patriarchal ideology acts to explain and rationalize patriarchy by attributing gender inequality to inherent natural differences between men and women, divine commandment, or other fixed structures. [4] Sociologists tend to disagree with some of the predominantly biological explanations of patriarchy and contend that socialization processes are primarily responsible for establishing gender roles. [5] Sociobiologists compare human gender roles to sexed behavior in other primates and some[ who? ] argue that gender inequality comes primarily from genetic and reproductive differences between men and women. Social constructionists contest this argument, arguing that gender roles and gender inequity are instruments of power and have become social norms to maintain control over women.
Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, religious, and economic organization of a range of different cultures. [6] Most contemporary societies are, in practice, patriarchal. [7] [8]
Patriarchy literally means "the rule of the father" [9] [4] and comes from the Greek πατριάρχης (patriarkhēs), [10] [11] "father or chief of a race", [12] which is a compound of πατριά (patria), "lineage, descent, family, fatherland" [13] (from πατήρpatēr, "father") [14] and ἀρχή (arkhē), "domination, authority, sovereignty". [15]
Historically, the term patriarchy has been used to refer to autocratic rule by the male head of a family; however, since the late 20th century it has also been used to refer to social systems in which power is primarily held by adult men. [16] [17] [18] The term was particularly used by writers associated with second-wave feminism such as Kate Millett; these writers sought to use an understanding of patriarchal social relations to liberate women from male domination. [19] [20] This concept of patriarchy was developed to explain male dominance as a social, rather than biological, phenomenon. [17]
Patriarchy is a social system in which men are the primary authority figures in the areas of political leadership, moral authority and control of property. [21] Sociologist Sylvia Walby defines patriarchy as "a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women". [22] Social stratification along gender lines, with power predominantly held by men, has been observed in most, but not all societies. [7] [17] [18] The concept of patriarchy is also related to patrilineality in a anthropological sense, although not exclusively. [23] [24] [25] [ further explanation needed ]
Some preconditions for the eventual development of patriarchy were the emergence of increased paternal investment in the offspring, also referred to as fatherhood, and of a sexual division of labour. Several researchers have stated that the first signs of a sexual division of labour dates from around 2 million years ago, deep within humanity's evolutionary past. [26] [27] [28] It has been connected to an evolutionary process during a period of resource scarcity in Africa approximately 2 million years ago. [27] [28] In the 2009 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human , [26] British primatologist Richard Wrangham suggests that the origin of the division of labor between males and females may have originated with the invention of cooking, [29] [30] which is estimated to have happened simultaneously with humans gaining control of fire between 1 and 2 million years ago. [31] The idea was early proposed by Friedrich Engels in an unfinished essay from 1876.
Anthropological, archaeological and evolutionary psychological evidence suggests that most prehistoric societies were relatively egalitarian, [7] and suggests that patriarchal social structures did not develop until after the end of the Pleistocene epoch, following social and technological developments such as agriculture and domestication. [32] [33] [34] According to Robert M. Strozier, historical research has not yet found a specific "initiating event". [35] Historian Gerda Lerner asserts in her 1986 book The Creation of Patriarchy that there was no single event, and documents that patriarchy as a social system arose in different parts of the world at different times. [36] Some scholars point to social and technological events, notably the emergence of agriculture, about six thousand years ago (4000 BCE). [37] [38]
Marxist theory, as articulated mainly by Friedrich Engels in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), assigns the origin of patriarchy to the emergence of private property, which has traditionally been controlled by men. In this view, men directed household production and sought to control women in order to ensure the passing of family property to their own (male) offspring, while women were limited to household labor and producing children. [16] [19] [39] Lerner disputes this idea, arguing that patriarchy emerged before the development of class-based society and the concept of private property. [40]
Domination by men of women is found in the Ancient Near East as far back as 3100 BCE, as are restrictions on a woman's reproductive capacity and exclusion from "the process of representing or the construction of history". [35] According to some researchers, with the appearance of the Hebrews, there is also "the exclusion of woman from the God-humanity covenant". [35] [36]
The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas argues that waves of kurgan-building invaders from the Ukrainian steppes into the early agricultural cultures of Old Europe in the Aegean, the Balkans and southern Italy instituted male hierarchies that led to the rise of patriarchy in Western society. [41] Steven Taylor argues that the rise of patriarchal domination was associated with the appearance of socially stratified hierarchical polities, institutionalised violence and the separated individuated ego associated with a period of climatic stress. [42]
A prominent Greek general Meno, in the Platonic dialogue of the same name, sums up the prevailing sentiment in Classical Greece about the respective virtues of men and women. He says: [43]
First of all, if you take the virtue of a man, it is easily stated that a man's virtue is this—that he be competent to manage the affairs of his city, and to manage them so as to benefit his friends and harm his enemies, and to take care to avoid suffering harm himself. Or take a woman's virtue: there is no difficulty in describing it as the duty of ordering the house well, looking after the property indoors, and obeying her husband.
— Meno, Plato in Twelve Volumes
The works of Aristotle portrayed women as morally, intellectually, and physically inferior to men; saw women as the property of men; claimed that women's role in society was to reproduce and to serve men in the household; and saw male domination of women as natural and virtuous. [44] [45] [46]
Not all of the great Greek thinkers believed that women were inferior. Aristotle's teacher Plato laid out his vision of the most just society in his work Republic. In it, Plato argues that women would have complete educational and political equality in such a society, and would serve in the military. The Pythagoreans also valued the participation of women, who were treated as intellectual equals.
Lerner states that Aristotle believed that women had colder blood than men, which made women not evolve into men, the sex that Aristotle believed to be perfect and superior. Maryanne Cline Horowitz stated that Aristotle believed that "soul contributes the form and model of creation". This implies that any imperfection that is caused in the world must be caused by a woman because one cannot acquire an imperfection from perfection (which he perceived as male). Aristotle had a hierarchical ruling structure in his theories. Lerner claims that through this patriarchal belief system, passed down generation to generation, people have been conditioned to believe that men are superior to women. These symbols are benchmarks which children learn about when they grow up, and the cycle of patriarchy continues much past the Greeks. [47]
Egypt left no philosophical record, but Herodotus left a record of his shock at the contrast between the roles of Egyptian women and the women of Athens. He observed that Egyptian women attended market and were employed in trade. In ancient Egypt, middle-class women were eligible to sit on a local tribunal, engage in real estate transactions, and inherit or bequeath property. Women also secured loans, and witnessed legal documents. Athenian women were denied such rights. [48]
Greek influence spread, however, with the conquests of Alexander the Great, who was educated by Aristotle. [49]
Although many 16th- and 17th-century theorists agreed with Aristotle's views concerning the place of women in society, none of them tried to prove political obligation on the basis of the patriarchal family until sometime after 1680. The patriarchal political theory is closely associated with Sir Robert Filmer. Sometime before 1653, Filmer completed a work entitled Patriarcha . However, it was not published until after his death. In it, he defended the divine right of kings as having title inherited from Adam, the first man of the human species, according to Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. [50]
However, in the latter half of the 18th century, clerical sentiments of patriarchy were meeting challenges from intellectual authorities – Diderot's Encyclopédie denies inheritance of paternal authority stating, "... reason shows us that mothers have rights and authority equal to those of fathers; for the obligations imposed on children originate equally from the mother and the father, as both are equally responsible for bringing them into the world. Thus the positive laws of God that relate to the obedience of children join the father and the mother without any differentiation; both possess a kind of ascendancy and jurisdiction over their children...." [51]
In the 19th century, various women began to question the commonly accepted patriarchal interpretation of Christian scripture. Quaker Sarah Grimké voiced skepticism about the ability of men to translate and interpret passages relating to the roles of the sexes without bias. She proposed alternative translations and interpretations of passages relating to women, and she applied historical and cultural criticism to a number of verses, arguing that their admonitions applied to specific historical situations, and were not to be viewed as universal commands. [52]
Elizabeth Cady Stanton used Grimké's criticism of biblical sources to establish a basis for feminist thought. She published The Woman's Bible , which proposed a feminist reading of the Old and New Testament. This tendency was enlarged by feminist theory, which denounced the patriarchal Judeo-Christian tradition. [53] In 2020, social theorist and theologian Elaine Storkey retold the stories of thirty biblical women in her book Women in a Patriarchal World and applied the challenges they faced to women today. Working from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, she analysed different variations of patriarchy, and outlined the paradox of Rahab, a prostitute in the Old Testament who became a role-model in the New Testament Epistle of James, and Epistle to the Hebrews. [54] In his essay "A Judicial Patriarchy: Family Law at the Turn of the Century", Michael Grossberg coined the phrase "judicial patriarchy", stating that "The judge became the buffer between the family and the state", and that "Judicial patriarchs dominated family law because within these institutional and intraclass rivalries judges succeeded in protecting their power over the law governing the hearth." [55] : 290–291
In ancient Japan, power in society was more evenly distributed, particularly in the religious domain, where Shintoism worships the goddess Amaterasu, and ancient writings were replete with references to great priestesses and magicians. However, at the time contemporary with Constantine in the West, "the emperor of Japan changed Japanese modes of worship", giving supremacy to male deities and suppressing belief in female spiritual power in what feminist scholars in the field of religious studies have called a "patriarchal revolution." [56]
In ancient China, gender roles and patriarchy were shaped by Confucianism. Adopted as the official religion in the Han dynasty, Confucianism has strong dictates regarding the behavior of women, declaring a woman's place in society, as well as outlining virtuous behavior. [57] Three Obediences and Four Virtues , a Confucian text, places a woman's value on her loyalty and obedience. It explains that an obedient woman is to obey their father before her marriage, her husband after marriage, and her first son if widowed, and that a virtuous woman must practice sexual propriety, proper speech, modest appearance, and hard work. [58] Ban Zhao, a Confucian disciple, writes in her book Precepts for Women that a woman's primary concern is to subordinate themselves before patriarchal figures, such as a husband or father, and that they need not concern themselves with intelligence or talent. [59] Ban Zhao is considered by some historians as an early champion for women's education in China; however, her extensive writing on the value of a woman's mediocrity and servile behavior leaves others feeling that this narrative is the result of a misplaced desire to cast her in a contemporary feminist light. [60] Similarly to Three Obediences and Four Virtues, Precepts for Women was meant as a moral guide for proper feminine behavior, and was widely accepted as such for centuries. [61]
In China's Ming dynasty, widowed women were expected to never remarry, and unmarried women were expected to remain chaste for the duration of their lives. [62] Biographies of Exemplary Women , a book containing biographies of women who lived according to the Confucian ideals of virtuous womanhood, popularized an entire genre of similar writing during the Ming dynasty. Women who lived according to this Neo-Confucian ideal were celebrated in official documents, and some had structures erected in their honor. [63]
In China's Qing dynasty, laws governing morality, sexuality, and gender-relations continued to be based on Confucian teachings. Men and women were both subject to strict laws regarding sexual behavior, however men were punished infrequently in comparison to women. Additionally, women's punishment often carried strong social stigma, "rendering [women] unmarriageable", a stigma which did not follow men. [64] Similarly, in the People's Republic of China, laws governing morality which were written as egalitarian were selectively enforced favoring men, with insufficient enforcement against female infanticide in various areas, while infanticide of any form was, by the letter of the law, prohibited. [65]
Sociologists[ clarification needed ] tend to reject predominantly biological explanations of patriarchy [66] and contend that socialization processes are primarily responsible for establishing gender roles. [5] According to standard sociological theory, patriarchy is the result of sociological constructions that are passed down from generation to generation. [67] These constructions are most pronounced in societies with traditional cultures and less economic development. [68] Even in modern, developed societies, however, gender messages conveyed by family, mass media, and other institutions largely favor males having a dominant status. [5]
Although patriarchy exists within the scientific atmosphere,[ clarification needed ] "the periods over which women would have been at a physiological disadvantage in participation in hunting through being at a late stage of pregnancy or early stage of child-rearing would have been short". [69] : 157 During the time of the nomads, patriarchy still grew with power. Lewontin and others argue that such biological determinism unjustly limits women. In his study, he states women behave a certain way not because they are biologically inclined to, but rather because they are judged by "how well they conform to the stereotypical local image of femininity". [69] : 137
Feminists[ who? ] believe that people have gendered biases, which are perpetuated and enforced across generations by those who benefit from them. [69] For instance, it has historically been claimed that women cannot make rational decisions during their menstrual periods. This claim cloaks the fact that men also have periods of time where they can be aggressive and irrational; furthermore, unrelated effects of aging and similar medical problems are often blamed on menopause, amplifying its reputation. [70] These biological traits and others specific to women, such as their ability to get pregnant, are often used against them as an attribute of weakness. [69] [70]
Sociologist Sylvia Walby has composed six overlapping structures that define patriarchy and that take different forms in different cultures and different times: [22]
The idea that patriarchy is natural has, however, come under attack from many sociologists, explaining that patriarchy evolved due to historical, rather than biological, conditions. In technologically simple societies, men's greater physical strength and women's common experience of pregnancy combined to sustain patriarchy. [69] Gradually, technological advances, especially industrial machinery, diminished the primacy of physical strength in everyday life. Introduction of household appliances reduced the amount of manual labor needed in the households. [71] [72] Similarly, contraception has given women control over their reproductive cycle. [73] [ relevant? ]
Patriarchy and Feminism
Patriarchy generally falls under two categories, "traditional patriarchy" and "structural patriarchy" (Pierik). [74] Traditional patriarchy refers to the idea that the father is the head of the household and is at the top of families’ social hierarchies. This patriarchal structure is most apparent in the American representation of a nuclear family; the father works and brings home an income while the mother takes care of the children and the household. This economic power dynamic in the home typically places the desires of the man/father/husband as priority over the desires of the woman/mother/wife.
Structural patriarchy expands the range of this social hierarchy outside of just the home and family dynamic. The typical influence that men hold in the home is extended to their social and professional positions. Women are often considered the caretakers of the workplace when in a professional setting while men do the labor. This dynamic can be seen in an office setting, with men as sources of income for the business and women in roles as secretaries to care for the workplace. This system leans into the idea that men are typically placed in higher-power positions in society due to the traditional role of a financial provider, and women fall into caretaker roles. [75]
Development of Feminism
The extended presence of patriarchal structures has led to the establishment of feministic ideals over centuries (Brunell). [76] Several prominent fronts led to and continue to push the development of feminism; including paid and unpaid labor and expectations of gender roles(Thompson). [77] Men are traditionally viewed as the breadwinners in a patriarchal society, and women are seen as homemakers. Formal job occupations outside of the home, traditionally carried out by men in a patriarchal society, are paid labor. Any work done inside of the home without financial compensation, traditionally carried out by women in patriarchal societies, is unpaid labor. Until 1974, women were not allowed to have their bank accounts, which pushed the financial divide further and placed men in higher economic positions. (Adam) [78] The uneven financial compensation between these levels of labor is one of the factors that pushed feministic ideals forward.
The Role of Patriarchy in Feminism
With men being expected to bring home an income to support a family and the entire household, the strain of the increasing cost of living makes that ideal impractical. Because of this economic strain, many households rely on multiple incomes from both men and women. When women would traditionally be expected to stay home and provide childcare, they now have to seek it out elsewhere to provide for the family, which in turn drives up the cost of living further. With this reliance on further income and sourcing traditionally female childcare roles outside of the home, patriarchal norms start to become less relevant. This breakdown of traditional roles leads to the natural decrease of a gender-specific social structure.
Feminist Ideologies
Feminism is not a direct opposition to patriarchy, it is a theory in response to patriarchy. Feminism focuses on the empowerment of women in society and the dismissal of traditional gender roles that are oppressive. Traditional female roles in the household are largely abandoned, and equal opportunity for women is the largest ideal that feminism stands with. Feminist theories believe that financial and social opportunities should be equally available for all.
This social division of gender roles as caretakers and providers is broken down to better allow women to participate outside of caring for a home and children. Financial opportunity refers to employment pursuits, access to one's own finances, and wage equality for job positions that are available for both men and women. The wage gap issues and traditional roles as unpaid laborers for the family significantly drive the growth of feminism in modern social settings. Which in turn shuts down patriarchal structures.
Feminist theorists have written extensively about patriarchy either as a primary cause of women's oppression, or as part of an interactive system. Shulamith Firestone, a radical-libertarian feminist, defines patriarchy as a system of oppression of women. Firestone believes that patriarchy is caused by the biological inequalities between women and men, e.g. that women bear children, while men do not. Firestone writes that patriarchal ideologies support the oppression of women and gives as an example the joy of giving birth, which she labels a patriarchal myth. For Firestone, women must gain control over reproduction in order to be free from oppression. [36] Feminist historian Gerda Lerner believes that male control over women's sexuality and reproductive functions is a fundamental cause and result of patriarchy. [79] Alison Jaggar also understands patriarchy as the primary cause of women's oppression. The system of patriarchy accomplishes this by alienating women from their bodies.
Interactive systems theorists Iris Marion Young and Heidi Hartmann believe that patriarchy and capitalism interact together to oppress women. Young, Hartmann, and other socialist and Marxist feminists use the terms patriarchal capitalism or capitalist patriarchy to describe the interactive relationship of capitalism and patriarchy in producing and reproducing the oppression of women. [80] According to Hartmann, the term patriarchy redirects the focus of oppression from the labour division to a moral and political responsibility liable directly to men as a gender. In its being both systematic and universal, therefore, the concept of patriarchy represents an adaptation of the Marxist concept of class and class struggle. [81]
Lindsey German represents an outlier in this regard. German argued for a need to redefine the origins and sources of the patriarchy, describing the mainstream theories as providing "little understanding of how women's oppression and the nature of the family have changed historically. Nor is there much notion of how widely differing that oppression is from class to class." [82] Instead, the patriarchy is not the result of men's oppression of women or sexism per se, with men not even identified as the main beneficiaries of such a system, but capital itself. As such, female liberation needs to begin "with an assessment of the material position of women in capitalist society." [82] In that, German differs from Young or Hartmann by rejecting the notion ("eternal truth") that the patriarchy is at the root of female oppression. [82]
Audre Lorde, an African American feminist writer and theorist, believed that racism and patriarchy were intertwined systems of oppression. [80] Sara Ruddick, a philosopher who wrote about "good mothers" in the context of maternal ethics, describes the dilemma facing contemporary mothers who must train their children within a patriarchal system. She asks whether a "good mother" trains her son to be competitive, individualistic, and comfortable within the hierarchies of patriarchy, knowing that he may likely be economically successful but a mean person, or whether she resists patriarchal ideologies and socializes her son to be cooperative and communal but economically unsuccessful. [36]
Lerner, in her 1986 book The Creation of Patriarchy, makes a series of arguments about the origins and reproduction of patriarchy as a system of oppression of women, and concludes that patriarchy is socially constructed and seen as natural and invisible. [79]
Some feminist theorists believe that patriarchy is an unjust social system that is harmful to both men and women. [83] It often includes any social, political, or economic mechanism that evokes male dominance over women. Because patriarchy is a social construction, it can be overcome by revealing and critically analyzing its manifestations. [84]
Jaggar, Young, and Hartmann are among the feminist theorists who argue that the system of patriarchy should be completely overturned, especially the heteropatriarchal family, which they see as a necessary component of female oppression. The family not only serves as a representative of the greater civilization by pushing its own affiliates to change and obey, but performs as a component in the rule of the patriarchal state that rules its inhabitants with the head of the family. [85]
Many feminists (especially scholars and activists) have called for culture repositioning as a method for deconstructing patriarchy. Culture repositioning relates to culture change. It involves the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society. [86] Prior to the widespread use of the term patriarchy, early feminists used male chauvinism and sexism to refer roughly to the same phenomenon. [87] Author bell hooks argues that the new term identifies the ideological system itself (that men claim dominance and superiority to women) that can be believed and acted upon by either men or women, whereas the earlier terms imply only men act as oppressors of women. [87]
Sociologist Joan Acker, analyzing the concept of patriarchy and the role that it has played in the development of feminist thought, says that seeing patriarchy as a "universal, trans-historical and trans-cultural phenomenon" where "women were everywhere oppressed by men in more or less the same ways […] tended toward a biological essentialism." [88]
Anna Pollert has described use of the term patriarchy as circular and conflating description and explanation. She remarks the discourse on patriarchy creates a "theoretical impasse ... imposing a structural label on what it is supposed to explain" and therefore impoverishes the possibility of explaining gender inequalities. [89]
Studies of male sexual coercion and female resistance in nonhuman primates (for example, chimpanzees [90] [91] ) suggest that sexual conflicts of interest underlying the patriarchy precede the emergence of the human species. [92] However, the extent of male power over females varies greatly across different primate species. [92] Among bonobos (a close relative of humans), for example, male coercion of females is rarely, if ever, observed, [92] and bonobos are widely considered to be matriarchal in their social structure. [93] [94] [95]
There is also considerable variation in the role that gender plays in human societies, and there is no academic consensus on to what extent biology determines human social structure. The Encyclopædia Britannica states that "...many cultures bestow power preferentially on one sex or the other...." [96] Some anthropologists, such as Floriana Ciccodicola, have argued that patriarchy is a cultural universal, [97] and the masculinities scholar David Buchbinder suggests that Roland Barthes' description of the term ex-nomination, i.e. patriarchy as the 'norm' or common sense, is relevant. [98] [ clarification needed ] However, there do exist cultures that some anthropologists have described as matriarchal. Among the Mosuo (a tiny society in Yunnan Province, China), for example, women exert greater power, authority, and control over decision-making. [66] Other societies are matrilinear or matrilocal, primarily among indigenous tribal groups. [99] Some hunter-gatherer groups, such as the !Kung of southern Africa, [7] have been characterized as largely egalitarian. [34]
Some proponents[ who? ] of the biological determinist understanding of patriarchy argue that because of human female biology, women are more fit to perform roles such as anonymous child-rearing at home, rather than high-profile decision-making roles, such as leaders in battles. Through this basis, "the existence of a sexual division of labor in primitive societies is a starting point as much for purely social accounts of the origins of patriarchy as for biological." [69] : 157 [ verification needed ] Hence, the rise of patriarchy is recognized through this apparent "sexual division". [69] [ verification needed ]
An early theory in evolutionary biology, sometimes referred to as Bateman's principle, argues that females almost always invest more energy into producing offspring than males, and therefore, females are a limiting factor over which males of most species will compete. This idea suggests that females prefer males who control more resources that can help her and her offspring, which in turn causes an evolutionary pressure on males to be competitive with each other in order to gain resources and power. [100]
Sociobiologist Steven Goldberg argues that social behavior is primarily determined by genetics, and thus that patriarchy arises more as a result of inherent biology than social conditioning. Goldberg contends that patriarchy is a universal feature of human culture. In 1973, Goldberg wrote, "The ethnographic studies of every society that has ever been observed explicitly state that these feelings were present, there is literally no variation at all." [101] Goldberg has critics among anthropologists. Concerning Goldberg's claims about the "feelings of both men and women", Eleanor Leacock countered in 1974 that the data on women's attitudes are "sparse and contradictory", and that the data on male attitudes about male–female relations are "ambiguous". Also, the effects of colonialism on the cultures represented in the studies were not considered. [102]
Anthropologist and psychologist Barbara Smuts argues that patriarchy evolved in humans through conflict between the respective reproductive interests of males and females. She lists six ways it may have emerged: [92] [ further explanation needed ]
While the term patriarchy often refers to male domination generally, another interpretation sees it as literally "rule of the father". [103] So some people[ who? ] believe patriarchy does not refer simply to male power over women, but the expression of power dependent on age as well as gender, such as by older men over women, children, and younger men. Some of these younger men may inherit and therefore have a stake in continuing these conventions. Others may rebel. [104] [105] [ further explanation needed ]
This psychoanalytic model is based upon revisions of Freud's description of the normally neurotic family using the analogy of the story of Oedipus. [106] [107] Those who fall outside the Oedipal triad of mother/father/child are less subject to male authority. [108]
The operations of power in such cases are usually enacted unconsciously. All are subject, even fathers are bound by its strictures. [109] It is represented in unspoken traditions and conventions performed in everyday behaviors, customs, and habits. [103] The triangular relationship of a father, a mother and an inheriting eldest son frequently form the dynamic and emotional narratives of popular culture and are enacted performatively in rituals of courtship and marriage. [110] They provide conceptual models for organising power relations in spheres that have nothing to do with the family, for example, politics and business. [111] [112] [113]
Arguing from this standpoint, radical feminist Shulamith Firestone wrote in her 1970 The Dialectic of Sex :
Marx was on to something more profound than he knew when he observed that the family contained within itself in embryo all the antagonisms that later develop on a wide scale within the society and the state. For unless revolution uproots the basic social organisation, the biological family – the vinculum through which the psychology of power can always be smuggled – the tapeworm of exploitation will never be annihilated. [114]
Gender inequality today remains significantly influenced by patriarchal structures, which manifest in various ways across different societies.
According to United Nations, $6.4 trillion the estimated annual requirement for certain sectors in 48 developing countries. This accounts for almost 70% of the world's population in developing countries. [115] The President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis emphasized the need to reverse the prediction of 340 million women in extreme poverty by 2030 due to the finding of one in every ten women currently living in extreme poverty. Women are also being targeted in places like Palestine, Ukraine, and Haiti, as he stated that credible evidence of sexual abuse was found. [116]
Sexual violence affects individuals of all genders, although there are far more female victims compared to male victims. Additionally, the majority of perpetrators are male, further reinforcing the core definition of patriarchy as a system of dominance supported by aggression and violence. [116]
Sima Bahouse, the Executive director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, emphasized the urgent need to eliminate poverty for women and girls, advocating for inclusive fiscal policies that promote equitable redistribution and progressive taxation. [115] Key priorities include enhancing public services and creating gender-responsive social protection systems that specifically benefit women and girls in poverty. Investing in the care economy is highlighted as essential for alleviating their poverty and fostering sustainable economic growth. The speaker rejected excuses about the difficulty or cost of these initiatives, asserting that a fair and sustainable future for all women and girls is achievable. [115]
The patriarchal framework of gender norms has established specific behavioral expectations for individuals according to their biological sex. Some individuals may not desire to adhere to the strict "acceptable behaviors" or gender boundaries set by society, which could be traumatic for some. These individuals are excluded and faced with alienation, making them more vulnerable to sexual violence. [116] For example, LGBTQ+ members frequently fall victim to sexual abuse and harassment. Consequently, a patriarchal society creates an inherently unsafe and harmful environment for non-conforming women and those who do not adhere to rigid societal norms of gender and sexuality. While this power disparity is often perceived as primarily benefiting men, it also poses hidden risks to their psychological well-being. [116]
With social media being very present today, individuals are increasingly susceptible to the negative impacts of patriarchy on their mental health. The internet has facilitated the spread of gender-based discrimination, reinforced patriarchal norms, and propagated negative representations of women. Research has shown that "social media use may be linked to adverse mental health effects, such as suicidal thoughts, feelings of loneliness, and reduced empathy". [116] For instance, social media platforms often feature curated images that promote unrealistic body standards or lifestyles, leading to feelings of comparison, jealousy, and anxiety among users.
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.
Misandry is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men or boys.
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies, psychoanalysis, political theory, home economics, literature, education, and philosophy.
Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles in society has been conceptualized, or thought about, can be traced back to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and William Thompson's utopian socialist work in the 1800s. Ideas about overcoming the patriarchy by coming together in female groups to talk about personal problems stem from Carol Hanisch. This was done in an essay in 1969 which later coined the term 'the personal is political.' This was also the time that second wave feminism started to surface which is really when socialist feminism kicked off. Socialist feminists argue that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression.
Cultural feminism is a term used to describe a variety of feminism that attempts to revalue and redefine attributes culturally ascribed to femaleness. It is also used to describe theories that commend innate differences between women and men.
Male privilege is the system of advantages or rights that are available to men on the basis of their sex. A man's access to these benefits may vary depending on how closely they match their society's ideal masculine norm.
Feminist sociology is an interdisciplinary exploration of gender and power throughout society. Here, it uses conflict theory and theoretical perspectives to observe gender in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction and reflexivity within social structures at large. Focuses include sexual orientation, race, economic status, and nationality.
Critical criminology applies critical theory to criminology. Critical criminology examines the genesis of crime and the nature of justice in relation power, privilege, and social status. These include factors such as class, race, gender, and sexuality. Legal and penal systems are understood to reproduce and uphold systems of social inequality. Additionally, critical criminology works to uncover possible biases within traditional criminological research.
Sociology of gender is a subfield of sociology. As one of the most important social structures is status. One of the most important statuses an individual claims is gender. Public discourse and the academic literature generally use the term gender for the perceived or projected (self-identified) masculinity or femininity of a person.
Sexual Politics is the debut book by American writer and activist Kate Millett, based on her PhD dissertation at Columbia University. It was published in 1970 by Doubleday. It is regarded as a classic of feminism and one of radical feminism's key texts, a formative piece in shaping the intentions of the second-wave feminist movement. In Sexual Politics, an explicit focus is placed on male dominance throughout prominent 20th century art and literature. According to Millett, western literature reflects patriarchal constructions and the heteronormativity of society. She argues that men have established power over women, but that this power is the result of social constructs rather than innate or biological qualities.
African feminism includes theories and movements which specifically address the experiences and needs of continental African women. From a western perspective, these theories and movements fall under the umbrella label of Feminism, but this categorization is misleading for many branches of African "feminism". African women have been engaged in gender struggle since long before the existence of the western-inspired label "African feminism," and this history is often neglected. Despite this caveat, this page will use the term feminism with regard to African theories and movements in order to fit into a relevant network of Wikipedia pages on global feminism. Because Africa is not a monolith, no single feminist theory or movement reflects the entire range of experiences African women have. African feminist theories are sometimes aligned, in dialogue, or in conflict with Black Feminism or African womanism. This page covers general principles of African feminism, several distinct theories, and a few examples of feminist movements and theories in various African countries.
Masculism or masculinism may variously refer to ideologies and socio-political movements that seek to eliminate discrimination against men, or increase adherence to or promotion of attributes regarded as typical of males. The terms may also refer to the men's rights movement or men's movement, as well as a type of antifeminism.
Gender essentialism is a theory which attributes distinct, intrinsic qualities to women and men. Based in essentialism, it holds that there are certain universal, innate, biologically based features of gender that are at the root of many of the group differences observed in the behavior of men and women.
A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought.
Feminist political theory is an area of philosophy that focuses on understanding and critiquing the way political philosophy is usually construed and on articulating how political theory might be reconstructed in a way that advances feminist concerns. Feminist political theory combines aspects of both feminist theory and political theory in order to take a feminist approach to traditional questions within political philosophy.
In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer. The concept was first articulated by British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Mulvey's theory draws on historical precedents, such as the depiction of women in European oil paintings from the Renaissance period, where the female form was often idealized and presented from a voyeuristic male perspective. Art historian John Berger, in his work Ways of Seeing (1972), highlighted how traditional Western art positioned women as subjects of male viewers’ gazes, reinforcing a patriarchal visual narrative.
Vegetarian ecofeminism is an activist and academic movement which states that all types of oppression are linked and must be eradicated, with a focus on including the domination of humans over nonhuman animals. Through the feminist concept known as intersectionality, it is recognized that sexism, racism, classism, and other forms of inter human discrimination are all connected. Vegetarian ecofeminism aims to include the domination of not only the environment but also of nonhuman animals to the list. Vegetarian ecofeminism is part of the academic and philosophical field of ecofeminism, which states that the ways in which the privileged dominates the oppressed should include the way humans dominate nature. A major theme within ecofeminism is the belief that there is a strong connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, and that both must be eradicated in order to end oppression.
In feminist theory, heteropatriarchy or cisheteropatriarchy, is a social construct where (primarily) cisgender and heterosexual males have authority over other cisgender males, females, and people with other sexual orientations and gender identities. It is a term that emphasizes that discrimination against women and LGBT people is derived from the same sexist social principle.
The Creation of Patriarchy is a non-fiction book written by Gerda Lerner in 1986 as an explanation for the origins of misogyny in ancient Mesopotamia and the following Western societies. She traces the "images, metaphors, [and] myths" that lead to patriarchal concepts' existence in Western society. She believes that the creation of patriarchy in the ancient Near East was a 2500-year period from nearly 3100 BC to 600 BC rather than a single event.
Today, as in the past, men generally hold political, economic, and religious power in most societies thanks to patriarchy, a system whereby men largely control women and children, shape ideas about appropriate gender behavior, and generally dominate society.
The heyday of the patriarchal structures analyzed in The Sexual Contract extended from the 1840s to the late 1970s [...] Nevertheless, men's government of women is one of the most deeply entrenched of all power structures
I shall define patriarchy as a system of social structures, and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women.
Sometimes, men in matrilineal societies were the ones who inherited, but they did so through their mother's brothers, and passed their own inheritances along to their sisters' children.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)But in a situation in which ecological conditions and irregularities in biological reproduction threatened the survival of the group, people would search for more reproducers — that is, women. Thus, the first appropriation of private property consists of the appropriation of the labor of women as reproducers. Aaby concludes: 'The connection between the reification of women on the one hand and the state and private property on the other is exactly the opposite of that posed by Engels and his followers. Without the reification of women as a historically given socio-structural feature, the origin of private property and the state will remain inexplicable.' If we follow Aaby's argument, which I find persuasive, we must conclude that in the course of the agricultural revolution the exploitation of human labor and the sexual exploitation of women become inextricably linked.
In its narrow meaning, patriarchy refers to the system, historically derived from Greek and Roman law, in which the male head of the household had absolute legal and economic power over his dependent female and male family members. [...] Patriarchy in its wider definition means the manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in the family and the extension of male dominance over women in society in general.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[ page needed ]Feminism, as I understand it, arises in resistance to the gender binary enforced by the patriarchy, an injustice that is as harmful to men as it is to women, as we can see in the long history of unjust wars, rationalized by patriarchy, in which men have fought and been killed and injured and traumatized.
Patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.