Patriarchy: Annotated Bibliography

In the 1890’s the term ‘feminism’ was coined, about 50 years after the women's rights movement started. The fight for the equality of the sexes has been going on for over one hundred years. People who are feminists seek to fight for equality between men and women. This includes equality in education, employment, and salary. Aldous Huxley wrote the novel Brave New World in 1931, in a time where women were still fighting for equality. Just 11 years prior, women were given the right to vote in the U.S. When you analyze Brave New World through a feminist stance, it exposes the inequality in an “equal” society. In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley explores the inequality of the sexes by showing the patriarchy throughout the society. He

Women’s equality is an issue that has been around for awhile. While women have been given many rights to increase equality, including the right to vote and go to college, the problem hasn’t completely vanished. One area that still sees this is in sports. Women’s sports do not draw nearly as many fans and are not covered in the media as much as men’s sports, pay differences between male and female athletes are large, and female athletes have to wait longer to start their professional career than men, which risks their professional career before it even starts.

In the article Gender Role and Feminism Revisited: A Follow-Up Study, the authors, Elizabeth Suter and Paige Toller, are analyzing societies views on feminism. They first perform surveys, asking people if they would identify themselves as feminist. The results showing that only 16% of the woman and 3% of the men were willing to take on the label of feminist. These results led to the authors wondering what these people thought of feminism.

In the novel the Liar’s Gospel there are several instances of conformation to Patriarchy and resistance against it. As the “Miryam” chapter is the only chapter that is written from the view point of a woman, it suggests the difficulty women had dealing with and living in a Patriarchal society. Miryam herself is constrained by patriarchy and often finds herself in disagreement with it even though she usually goes along with what is expected of her.

Girls are always told that we can be whatever we want to be. Whether that is a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, or even a clown. That is true, but it is difficult for most women to achieve these goals because of a misogynistic society that prevents them from flourishing. Even though many people think that society has come a long way in making men and women equal, women are still treated as lesser people and make seventy nine cents to every dollar a man makes for doing the same jobs. I think that the reputation of women as second class citizens needs to change and the only way that can happen is for women to stop tearing each other down and stick together to demand equal rights for women in our backyard and all over the world.

Ami McKay’s The Birth House is a novel imbued with contradiction, dynamic interplay between characters and the journey of becoming a midwife. These themes are explored by the author in a tumultuous tale set against the back drop of a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, during the 1910s. McKay’s multi-layered novel is told from the perspective of a female protagonist, Dora Rare, the daughter of an East Coast shipbuilder who struggles against a narrative of Victorian ideals throughout the story. In the novel, character development takes place through Dora’s struggles with religious oppression, societal restrictions and an over-whelming amount of patriarchy.

The oppression of women has been brought into light in the recent years but it was the norm in many societies in early history especially in premodern east Asia. During that time, the roles of men and women in society were determined by great scholars that had the power to get their voice to be heard and set general rules in society. In China, scholars like Confucius, Mencius, and Mozi had great impact on the way people divided the roles between men and women. The overall oppression of women in premodern east Asia can be seen through quotes from great scholars about how women should be obedient to men, should not make important decisions in their families, and are not spoken of equally to men in society.

The Forerunner was a monthly journal edited and written by Charlotte Perkins Gillman which sought to encourage women to think independently in hopes of strengthening the movement of women's rights against the predominantly male run society of the 1900’s. It ran for seven volumes, starting with the November 1909 issue and ceased publication shortly before 1917. In this article, Gillman, known for her defiant attitude towards patriarchy, reveals the motives which inspired her to write The Yellow Wallpaper where she provides background information with a sincere address to prior hardships and personal struggles with mental illness, particularly nervous breakdowns with a melancholic tendence heavily influenced by the mistreatment of a dismissive

Based on Euripides’ portrayal of women in Medea, Classical women violate standard rules of the Athenian patriarchy and go beyond Athenian gender ideology by showing dominant characteristics such as power and intelligence. Based on my research Classical women were held back and suppressed by political law and societal standards. It is claimed that women were so suppressed that they practiced strict seclusion away from the civic sphere were not to affiliate themselves with any man unless accompanied by their guardian. As Medea shows, this strict seclusion is not the case as most of the plot of the play took place outside of her home. The significance of Euripides challenging the Athenian view of women in his work is not an outcry to “speak for” women but instead questions the values of the Athenian polis (state/community) to highlight it’s failings.

“I / Will bury them with my own hand, to ensure that none / Of my enemies shall violate or insult their graves” (Euripides 1375-7).

The main topic of this chapter is stereotypes specifically about masculinity and femininity. A historical perspective called The Cult of True Womanhood, which meant a woman should be devout, unstained, obedient and well behaved. However, men could practically be the opposite of the women and yet be depicted as inferior to men. In addition, another historical view presented is Male Gender Role Identity in which a man could be prosperous by being tough, suppressing emotions, avoiding feminine actions and passions. Furthermore, a psychological test that was performed was the Attitude Interest Analysis Survey in which resulted in masculinity and femininity as complete opposites. For example, men are tough and independent, whereas women are weak and dependent.

Gloria Jean Watkins, known by her pen name Bell Hooks (the name of her great grandmother), was born September 25, 1952. She grew up to be the author of more than three dozen books, the topics of which range from gender, race, and class, to spirituality, and contemporary media. Hooks attended Stanford University, The University of Wisconsin, and The University of California, Santa Cruz, eventually earning her P.h.D. In her article, “Understanding Patriarchy,” Hooks argues that patriarchy isn’t only harmful to women, it’s harmful to men as well, in different ways. Patriarchy sets rigid gender roles that say women are to be docile, obedient, and nurturing, while men should be violent, dominating, and aggressive. This ideal greatly emotionally stunts men, and makes it so that they cannot express themselves in any way other than aggression. In this article, Hooks was very effective in explaining and giving examples as to why the patriarchy negatively affects both men and women, and that it is up to both to break free from these constraints and work together to end the patriarchy.

In the passage “patriarchy from above” Elizabeth Dore examines different aspects of power relations in Nicaragua. Elizabeth Dore is arguing against the perspective that the country's capitalist conversion was brought in by the coffee outbreak that lasted from 1870 to 1930. Dore states “In Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador, most coffee was produced on large estates that relied on forced labor drafts and debt peonage” Pg 209. Dore is convinced that coffee growing intensified landowning and labor exploitation that advocated capitalist development. In this passage, Dore puts gender at the front of her studies and arguments.

Patriarchal structures that have played a profound role in shaping the economy throughout history remain systemic to the organisation of today’s economic capitalism. Maria Mies’ work, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, looks at the role of the patriarchy in maintaining social relations of production that is conducive to capitalistic ideals. This notion remains relevant and potent in today’s society. Remnants of patriarchal relations fundamentally enable the extent of class, exploitation, agency and power that drives this capitalist economy. While man-woman relations are conducive the process of capital accumulation, they are not mutually indispensible. That is, there is no infinite or explicit relationship between labour-wage gender inequality under capitalism. However, it is the inability to disaffirm the prevalence of gendered norms that define women’s place in society enables the patriarchy to work in favour of capitalism and vice versa. The interdependence between the patriarchy and the mode of production will be analysed in this essay through three principle premises. The starting point will look at the social organisation of hierarchical sexual relations based on biological natures. This will be the foundational and underlying basis in which the patriarchy subliminally persists and reaffirms itself to influence capitalist societies. Further on, it will look at the ways in which male-female relations that have persisted from precapitalist times continue to

The purpose of this paper is to explore patriarchal values that reinforce violence towards women in intimate partner relationships. This paper argues that patriarchy and the social construction of masculinity reproduce male violence against women. The following sub-issues that that will be discussed are patriarchy, capitalism, the religion of Islam, and the construction of masculinity and femininity. All the sub-issues encompass patriarchy values which allows inmate partner violence.