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Department of Political Science and Sociology

North South University
Fall 2019
Contemporary Issues in Gender Relationships (SOC 201)
Faculty: Dr. Naseem Akhter Hussain (NAHI)

Lecture- 3 : Patriarchy: Male Dominance and Female Subordination

Condition and Position of Women

Institution Gender Condition Position

Family Female Perform household work no control over household
income and decision making
Male do not perform household control household income –
work make household decisions –
head of the household
Society Female less opportunity for mobility victim of social inequality –
and for social work – get few low status - powerless
social benefits
Male maximum opportunity to enough chances to participate
participate and get social in social activities – higher
benefits status – powerful
State Female limited scope to get citizen’s limited opportunity to
rights – less employment participate in governmental
opportunity – contributions in institutions – victim of
household economy not professional and legal
recognized discrimination
Male more scope to enjoy citizen’s monopoly of male power in
rights – more opportunities governance – more political
for employment participation

1.1 What do we mean by patriarchy?

- Patriarchy literally means the rule of the father or the patriarch in a specific type of
male dominated family.
- Now it refers to male domination - power relationships by which men dominate
women- a system whereby women are kept subordinate in a number of ways.
- Patriarchy is the institutionalized system of male dominance in the family and society
in general - power relationships.
- It is a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate oppress and
exploit women.
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1.2 What do we mean by Women’s subordination?

- Subordination means having less power or authority than somebody else in a group or
an organization.
- Women’s subordination means inferior position of women to men-that women are a
dependent class under patriarchal domination.
- The feeling of powerlessness, discrimination and experience of limited self-esteem
and self-confidence jointly contribute to the subordination of women.
- Simone de Beauvoir’s argument that because men view women as fundamentally
different from themselves, women are reduced to the status of the second sex and
hence subordination.
- Subordination experienced at a daily level - discrimination, disregard, insult, control,
exploitation, oppression, violence - both within the family and outside at work.

2.1 Is patriarchy a term?

- It is a concept, a tool; to understand gender relations.

- Patriarchy is a system based on the notion of biological determinism- that men and
women are naturally different because of their biology and are therefore assigned
different roles.
- Patriarchy operates some norms, social customs, traditions, social roles that define
women as inferior to men.
- To preserve male supremacy patriarchy creates ‘masculine’, ‘feminine’
characteristics, ‘private’ ‘public’ realms by gendered socialization process.
- Different characteristics are emphasized- Masculine (bravery, strength, dominance,
competitiveness etc.), Feminine (caring, love, nurturing, timidity, shame, obedience
etc.)

2.2 How does Patriarchy manifest in daily lives?

- Son preference - discrimination between boy and girl child - food distribution -
educational facilities.
- Burden of household work of women and girls.
- Lack of freedom and mobility for girls.
- Wife battering - no real home for women.
- Sexual harassment at workplace - domestic violence.
- Lack of inheritance property rights for women.
- Male control over women’s bodies and sexuality - control over fertility or
reproductive rights.
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- Limits of women’s aspirations - lack of self-respect, self-esteem, self-confidence.

- Women’s courageous act is unfeminine.

2.3 Is patriarchy the same everywhere?

- It can be different in different classes, ethnic groups in the same society.

- It can be different in different societies.
- It can be different in different periods of history.
- Common feature is - Men are in control - but the nature of this control may differ.

3.1 What men control in a patriarchal system?

- Two distinct forms of patriarchy- private and public patriarchy.

- Private patriarchy is based upon household production as the main site of women’s
oppression.
- In private patriarchy expropriation of women’s labor takes place by individual
patriarchs within the household.
- The principle of patriarchal strategy is exclusionary .
- Public patriarchy is based principally in public sites such as employment and state.
- The household does not cease to be a patriarchal structure in the public form.
- Public patriarchy is a more collective appropriation.
- The principle of patriarchal strategy is segregationist and subordinating.
- State has a bias towards patriarchal interests in its policies and actions.

3.2 How patriarchy is beneficial for men?

a) Men exploit women’s productive labor in the household and work.

• Material basis of patriarchy as men benefit materially.

• Free labour but housewives are seen as dependents.
• Men can force their wives to work or prevent them from working.
• Men appropriate what women earn.
• Women are excluded from better paid jobs.

b) Men exploit women’s reproductive power - through family planning – contraceptives -

ideology of motherhood - state policy of Reserve Army.

c) Men control women through sexual oppression.

• Women follow shotitto but no such thing for men.

• Code of behavior for women not men.
• Parda for women.
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• Rape oppressors are not punished

• Fatwa for women

d) Men control women’s mobility - strict limits for women - separation of private and
public spaces and control of women’s interaction.

c) Men control property and other resources. When women want to inherit according to
customary practices social sanctions control them

Women earn less than men

4.1 How institutions are controlled by patriarchy?

a) Family

- Socialization in hierarchy, subordination and discrimination.

- Men define morality, ethics, behavior, law in the interest of men.
- Double standard of morality.

b) The legal system

- Patriarchal and Bourgeoisie

- It favours men and powerful class.
- Judiciary - men provide biased interpretation of law in favor of them.

c) The economic system

- Men determine the value of different productive activities.

- Women’s creation of surplus through shadow work is denounced, discounted.
- Women’s household labor is not evaluated and put into the hidden economy.
- Subsistence economy depends on women’s unpaid labor but it is not recognized.
- Women’s labor is considered to be cheap labor.

d) The political system

- All political institutions are male dominated

- Few women may go to power but they function within the patriarchal structure.

e) Media

- Important tools in the hands of upper class men

- Propagate class and gender ideology
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- Film –TV- Newspapers – portrayal of women as stereotypical-male superiority and

female inferiority

f) Education

- Male hegemony over the creation of knowledge characterized by division and

opposition
- Production of binary, mind-matter, self-other, reason-emotion
- Unable to see the wholeness of the phenomena
- Masculinity and femininity are constructed - Men and Women behave – think-aspire
differently

4.2 Patriarchy and Violence

- Violence is used to control and subjugate women

- The state of patriarchy is a state of war - widow-burning-foot binding-killing witches
- Continued sense of insecurity
- Fear keeps women home - economically exploited - socially suppressed

5.1 Does patriarchy benefit men?

- Men get privileges-power to control

- Men are economically and materially benefited
- Men as a whole are not discriminated as men

5.2 Do all men benefit as men from patriarchy?

- All men benefit as men because they get certain privileges as men
- Even working class men who are powerless have power over their women
- Men are also disadvantaged as they are pushed into stereotype
- Men are expected to behave in a certain way - role of provider and protector
- Men who are gentle to their wives are ridiculed

6.1 Are women completely powerless in patriarchy?

- All women are not powerless-some women may have power but this does not change
their position
- Women are accommodated in the male-dominated system
- Unequal system cannot continue without participation of the oppressed

6.2 Why women support the rule of men?

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- Slaves supported slavery-people supported colonial rulers

- Some women are part of the patriarchal system
- Women internalize patriarchal values – they are not free of patriarchal ideology
- Women treat their sons better-deprive their daughters – mistreat daughters- in- law
- Men have all the power like sun - women compete with each other to have a bigger
share of sunlight.

7.1 The Origin of Patriarchy: Theories

For over hundred years debate has been going on between those who believe 1)
patriarchy is natural and universal and those who say that 2) patriarchy is not natural; it is
man-made and can be changed; it had a beginning and therefore it will have an end

a) Traditional View of Patriarchy

i) Biologically determined – different roles and tasks

- Women bear children – chief task of motherhood

- Men become hunters – providers and protectors of women and children

• This theory has been disproved

- Big hunt provided food not always sometimes

- Regular food came from gathering and small hunting done by women
- Men-women relationship characterized by complementarity – No difference in status

ii) Biological inferiority leads to women’s incapacities to reason and make decisions

• This theory has no historical or scientific evidence

- Human beings have distanced themselves from nature and changed. Biology is no
more their destiny.

b) Engel’s Explanation of the origin of patriarchy

- “Origins of the Family Private Property and the State” published in 1884
- Women’s subordination began with the development of private property. There was a
time – no class no gender difference
- Three phases
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• Savagery – Human beings lived like animals – ancestry through mother – no

marriage no private property- Mother’s Right
• Barbarism – Animal husbandry – Men moved further for hunting – women stayed
home with children and had control over clans
• Modern phase

Intergroup fight - slavery - Men’s power over wealth – animals – slaves

Men want to hand over property to own children – Marriage developed- Monogamy

Right of the father established – Mother’s Right overthrown

Surplus was produced in areas controlled by men - private property developed – Women
became economically dependent

c) Radical Feminist Theory

- Patriarchy preceded private property – Basic contradiction is between sex, not

economic class
- Women are oppressed because reproduction is controlled by men
- Domestication of animal taught men role of procreation and aggressive behavior
- Who is powerful – women who give and nurture life or men – who kill animal life?
- Men use their ability to rape intimidate and control women
- Men’s psychological need to compensate for their incapacity to bear children made
them construct institutions of dominance
- Men rule through direct use of violence. Violence - patriarchy - women’s
subordination

d) Socialist Feminist Theory

- Patriarchy is not a direct outgrowth of biological differentiation. It results from

ideological and political interpretation of differentiation
- Both relations of production and relations of reproduction lead to patriarchy.
- In primitive societies femaleness was interpreted as producer of life – All women
defined as mother
- As pastoralists men had monopoly over army and violence. Women were no longer
important as producer or gatherers of food. Only they were needed as breeders of
children or sons.
- Productivity of women was reduced to fertility
- Under capitalist condition all women are defined as housewives and all men as
breadwinners
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- Motherhood in capitalism is a part and parcel of housewife syndrome.

- Thus the definition of womanhood emptied all active, creative, productive human
qualities. Identity of women – wifehood not motherhood.

e) Origin of patriarchy in South Asia

- Primitive societies - hunting and gathering societies - women’s role in production and
reproduction recognized. No sexual division of labor.
- It is known from cave pictures - women’s reproductive power was highly appreciated
– worship of female power – women’s status connected to motherhood and
procreation.
- Caste and Gender hierarchies were the principles of Brahmanical social order.
- Ideology of motherhood was replaced by patriarchal ideology of the Aryans.
- Aryan women had productive role. Aryans subjugated some tribes and labor was
available. Thus Aryan women retreated to household.
- Women’s position was reduced to be powerless by three devices-
1) Ideology, Patibrota, Sotitto, Wifehood not Motherhood dominant feminine identity.
2) Law and custom maintaining Brahmanical social order to keep women under control.
3) If men failed to control, state entered punishing women for faults defined by men.