The Power Structured Relationships Within A Patriarchal Society

When a man came into power, it was because of his merits and hard work. When a women came into power, it was pure luck or because of a man. Patriarchy was a societal issue in the early nineteenth century and is still prevalent today in the twenty-first century with men holding the authority over women on average in life. Patriarchy is defined as a society arranged to make sure that final social and political power disproportionately rests with males. Given the traditional gender roles set in America’s early nineteenth century patriarchy, both men and women's attitudes towards sexuality were thoroughly twisted and used to oppress women while valuing men, and slavery magnified the patriarchy’s worst aspects like sexual violence.

The dynamic between male and female is extremely complex. Over the course of human history, men have primarily dominated over women in nearly every aspect of human interaction and daily life. Despite the large progress that has been made in recent decades, women are still heavily subordinated by the male gender both in the workforce and in the private sphere. Examples of this domination of men can be seen in many aspects of everyday life including: interpersonal and social interaction, family, among peers, in education, and in the media.

Patriarchy is a social system where men dominate and govern most of the world’s economical, educational, familial, health, political, and religious systems. This political social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior females, has been taking it toll on different demographics. To maintain dominance, men exude their sensitive, inferior “masculinity” through various forms of psychological control, manipulation, violence, and terrorism. The subservient role-playing woman has to orchestrate to patriarchal chime by being nurturing, obedient, passive, and weak

The patriarchal society is based on powers in relationships—whether that power is men over women, bosses over their workers and even parents over their children. Relationships

First, it is imperative that one knows what exactly patriarchy is: “a social system in which power is held by men, through cultural norms and customs that favor men and withhold opportunity from women” (“Patriarchy”). Any social structure where men outrank women, where men are provided with an unequal increase in opportunities, or any system that instills stereotypical traits, or gender roles, falls under this category.

Another interesting statement I would like to bring to the surface is Alvarez writes in her book that “boys are born men but girls turn into women” (72). This made me think of the BBC YouTube clip we watched in class. Within this video a mother, father, and daughter are getting prepared for their daughters sweet fifteen. One of the first things I recognized in this film was that the father a male was speaking about and for the females when they were in the same room as them listening to what he had to say. This is a problem in itself as the male voices his and silences the women, in addition, he is speaking on a subject that he does not even fully understand, women. For arguments sake a women would never speak about a man and what it means to be one. This power dynamic within this family is troubling and shows the dominance of one gender over

Mill makes a very strong argument that the position women have in society is not the only possible way to structure societal hierarchy. The reason it seems unnatural to change its structure, he claims, is because it is uncustomary.

When I go to India, I see my aunts and uncles fitting almost perfectly into these gender roles of men and women. The men have some sort of job, while the women are always full time housewives. Their mothers were housewives, and their mother’s mothers were housewives as well. What is different about them? Because they are bombarded with the roles they should fulfil, they feel obligated to fill them. This reinforces the concept that individuals develop based off of what they are told and the environment that they were brought up in. It is not only the women that are being held to specific roles, it is also the men! In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Tea Cake says “Ah need no assistance to help me feed mah woman” when Janie offered some of her money to help (Hurston 128). Because Tea Cake felt obligated as a man to support himself and his family, he would not take any of the money that was sitting idly in Janie’s bank account. This shows that men, just like women, developed based off of the environment that they were brought up in. These masculine values were instilled in Tea Cake, most likely as a young child. If he did not keep this role as breadwinner, he would be shamed and looked down upon.

In “Doing Gender” (1987), West and Zimmerman mention that by doing gender, men are doing dominance and woman are doing deference. This is how my grandmother spent her teenage years, she was to do as her husband wanted. She was only 15 years old when she got married and was expected to have children right away. My grandfather was older, which meant he was to be respected and obeyed. My grandmother’s main worries in her twenties were not about getting an education or finding a career, but rather to make sure the house was clean.

Society has established roles in which differentiate men and women, by focusing on how they, as individuals, should portray different characteristics. This allows for the opportunity of mislead perceptions, by the displays of gender in an unequal manner. If a man shows any characteristics that only a woman should have, he may be seen as weaker or maybe even deviant. This is true for a woman too, as that if she portrays too much aggression or competitive characteristics, she may be too manly, instead of fulfilling what should be her more nurturing role. Both men and women seem to face gender inequality, not just one more than the other. They both can face criticism, unequal treatment and stereotypes based on whether they choose to follow the exact way society has classified the gender “norms.” Although society has created these labels, it solely comes down to the individual on whether or not they choose to be deviant against them completely, in some ways, or simply not at all.

Patriarchy Rough Draft Patriarchy has been the most significant system in history. The idea of men being dominant over women has existed for thousands of years. Starting at the Neolithic Era and lasting all the way to present day, patriarchy has played a role in many women’s lives. The rise of patriarchy is displayed through many different eras and civilizations like the Neolithic Era and Mesopotamian civilization. Because of the rise, the effects of patriarchy have continued through time, lasting till present day.

Many will make the argument that we must all understand each form of oppression due to our all facing oppression under capitalism, a system build upon the inherent oppression of many, however I would like to - using social, political, and historical context - make the argument that all forms of oppression are fueled by and normalised through different (completely harmful and often deadly) ideas and thus, the experiences of those who are directly affected by the aforementioned will be different - and argue that we must address both patriarchy and other forms of special oppression, as well as capitalism, not ignoring, nor favouring either, as even with capitalism alone eliminated, patriarchy would exist independently, at least through societal norms which - without challenge - would be sustained across economic systems, due to its rooting itself in various aspects of our culture and society, I will

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.

Patriarchy usually means a family that is male-dominated and headed by the father. It is a social construct in which men and masculine roles are considered to be absolutely superior to women and feminine roles. A society is considered patriarchal when it is male-dominated, male-centered, and male-identified. Being a male-dominated culture means that positions of power and authority in the political, economic, legal, religious, domestic, educational, and military spheres are usually reserved only for men. Male-identification means that a culture’s ‘normal’ way of living is based on men and their lives. Male-dominance means that the culture has been shaped by men in a way that mostly serves male interests. Patriarchal societies are male-identified because their core ideals concerning what is morally right, desirable or normal are connected with how they think about masculinity or men in general. They are always male-centered, with the culture’s focus is

Before examining particular societies, the general notions of patriarchy must be established. Generally, women were considered inferior to men, but each facet of society provides a distinctive insight into gender roles. A fundamental difference between the two genders was that the responsibility of a man was to be a member of the public, whereas the responsibility of a woman was to be in the home. Social norms defined men as “rulers, warriors, scholars, and heads of households” (Ways of the World 59). Even if a man had little