ANALYSING STRUCTURES OF PATRIARCHY 

                                                          
Patriarchy ----- As A Concept 
The word patriarchy refers to any form of social power given
disproportionately to men. The word patriarchy literally means the rule of the Male or
Father. The structure of the patriarchy is always considered the power status of male,
authority, control of the male and oppression, domination of the man, suppression,
humiliation, sub-ordination and subjugation of the women. 
Patriarchy originated from Greek word, pater (genitive from patris, showing
the root pater-meaning father and arche- meaning rule), is the anthropological term
used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to
predominates in positions of power, the more likely it is that a male will hold that
position. The term patriarchy is also used in systems of ranking male leadership in
certain hierarchical churches and Russian orthodox churches. Finally, the term
patriarchy is used pejoratively to describe a seemingly immobile and sclerotic
political order. 
The term patriarchy is distinct from patrilineality and patrilocality. Patrilineal
defines societies where the derivation of inheritance (financial or otherwise) originates
from the father’s line; a society with matrilineal traits such as Judaism, for example,
provides, that in order to be considered a Jew, a person must be born of a Jewish
mother. Judaism is still considered a patriarchal society.
Patrilocal defines a locus of control coming from the father’s
geographic/cultural community. Most societies are predominantly patrilineal and
patrilocal, but this is not a universal but patriarchal society is characterized by
interlocking system of sexual and generational oppression. 
According to Gerda Lerner, patriarchy means the manifestation and
institutionalization of male dominance over the children in the family and the
extension of male dominance over women in society in general. It implies that men
hold power in all the important institutions of society and that women are deprived of
access to such power. It does not imply that women are either totally powerless or
deprived of rights, influence and resources. One of the most challenging tasks of
women’s history is to trace with precision the various forms and modes in which
patriarchy appears historically. The shifts and changes in its structure and function,
and the adaptations it makes to female pressure and demands.
The Encyclopedia of feminist theories defines patriarchy as the hierarchical
relations between men and women, manifested in familial and social structure alike, in
a descending order from an authoritarian if often times benevolent male head-to-male
dominance in personal, political, cultural and social life as well as to patriarchal
families where the law of the father prevails.[1] 
 Feminists use the concept of patriarchy to describe the power relationship
between men and women. The term literally means, rule by the father and can refer
narrowly to the supremacy of the husband / father within the family, and therefore to
the subordination of his wife and his children.
 
Some feminist employ patriarchy only in this specific and limited sense, to
describe the structure of the family and the dominance of the father within preferring
to use broader terms such as ‘male supremacy’ or ‘male dominance’ to describe
gender relations in society at large. However feminists believe that the dominance of
the father within the family symbolizes male supremacy in all other institutions.
Kate Millett describe ‘patriarchal government’ as an institution where by
‘that half of the populace which is female is controlled by that half which is male.’
She suggested that patriarchy contains two principles: ‘male shall dominate female,
elder male shall dominate younger’. A patriarchy is therefore a hierarchic society,
characterized by both sexual and generational oppression. Men have dominated
women in all societies, but accept that the form and degree of oppression has varied
considerably in different cultures and at different times.[2]
 Patriarchy is an ideology in which women is always dominated by her husband
and always considered her husband as Swami, Shauhar, Pati, Malik, Devta, Lord,
Owner, God and women’s body is always considered as property of men.
 
Patriarchy As A System Of Exploitation
 Understanding power relationship between men and women, women and
women, men and man, control of the head of the family on the rest of the members. 
To understand how the patriarchy concept works we have to examine two
interacting dimensions of social system. The formation of gendered identities and the
reproduction of gendered social structure. The first is about socialization- how
individuals are taught culturally appropriate attitudes and behaviors. Families,
schools, religious institutions and media are important sources of this socialization.
The second dimension is about systemic or structural control: how practices and
institutions keep gender hierarchy in place by generating conformity and compliance.
Moral and intellectual control is affected through privileging certain belief system
(e.g. Myth, religion and even science). More direct social control is affected through
job markets, laws, governance and physical coercion.
 From birth on, the way we are treated depends on our gender assignment, and
we learn in multiple ways how to adopt gender –appropriate behaviors. There are few
occasions or interactions where our patriarchy is truly irrelevant; our names; clothes;
games; rewards and punishments; the attention we get, the subjects we study; the
knowledge claims we make, the jobs we work at, and the power we have are all
profoundly shaped by gender expectations. As individuals, we differ considerably in
the extent to which we conform to cultural expectations.. But none of us escape
gender socialization or the systemic efforts of gender inequality. Most significant it is
not only females but males as well who suffer from the rigid gender roles.
 Patriarchy Sterotypes And Dichotomies
 Stereotypes are pictures in our heads that filter how we ‘see’. They are
composite images that attributes-often incorrectly and always too generally- certain
characteristics to whole groups of people. Thus groups are seen as other want or
expect to see them, not necessarily as they are. The over simplification in stereotypes
encourages us to ignore complexity and contradictions that might prompt us to
challenge the status quo. The use of stereotypes suggests that particular behaviors are
timeless and inevitable. Generally, dominant patriarchy stereotypes depict men/
masculinity as “strong, independent, worldly, aggressive, ambitious, logical and
rough” and women /femininity as the opposite: “weak, dependent, passive, naïve, not
ambitious, illogical and gentle”. This exemplifies the binary nature of models of
gender, constructing man/ masculinity and woman/ femininity as two poles of
dichotomy- oppositions- that define each other. Through this either or lens women are
not simply different from men: “women” is defined by what is “ not man” and
characteristics of femininity are those that are inappropriate to or contradict
masculinity.
 The every aspect of our lives, we are bombarded with patriarchy stereotypes.
Consider the depiction of men and women on television and in musical lyrics; how
often is there a politically powerful of physically ‘rough’ woman, especially one that
is likable or a man who is nurturing and sensual as a way of being all the time, not just
in certain circumstances and most telling why are there so few images of gender-free
individuals- people whose gender status is not immediately and unequivocally
apparent? Why are we so uncomfortable with gender ambiguities, virtually insisting
that individuals be patently either men/ masculine or women/ feminine?
 These questions bring into focus how gender stereotypes interact with western
patterns of thinking to institutionalize a critical and typically conservative pattern in
how we think about, act upon, and therefore shape reality. In Cynthia Epstein’s word,
“ no aspect of social life- whether the gathering of crops, the ritual of religion, the
formal dinner party or the organization of government- is free from the dichotomous
thinking that casts the world in categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’.
 An interaction of gender stereotypes, dichotomies, hierarchies, and
musculinism/ androcentrism powerfully filters our understanding of social reality.
Because we rarely question the dualism of male- female, we fail to see how the male –
dominated hierarchy of masculine- feminine is socially constructed rather than natural
recognizing the power of these filtering devices is an important first step towards
analyzing their effects accurately and improving our knowledge of the world we both
produce and produced by.