Mothers and others- mapping the new realities, Part II Patriarchy Defined

Patriarchy has specific elements and goals.

1)The primary goal is to establish a patrilineal system of inheritance. This means that it is absolutely essential to control women's sexuality. Virgintiy becomes a virtue. Sex is a commodity. Marriage is a state of ownership. Sex is specifically for procreation. Adultery is/was punishable by death. (We never hear of Men in Africa being in danger of being stoned to death, do we?) Sexuality is expressed as ownership or violence. Sensuality is denigrated as "sinful"or as weakness. Feminine qualities and symbols are made inferior, occult or evil. Homosexuality is despised, and people are incorrectly taught that it is “unnatural” in spite of the fact that it does occur throughout nature.

2)Power over others. A few people at the top of a hierarchy control the masses, whether it's a King, a dictator, a priesthood. They will often claim to be ordained by “God” to rule or to save the people who serve them. The claim of “Divine Right” means that they are never questioned and are above law. The ruling class is supported by the labor of the people, who are enslaved, exploited or taxed. Women and children are generally bought and sold as sources of labor and/or sex.

3)Might equals Right. The ruling class controls the people with threats of violence in the form of an Army, a police force, etc. Military values take precedence over humanitarian principles. Conformity is enforced with violence. Anyone or anything defined as the “other” is demonized and made to seem less than human to justify torture, rape and murder of “heretics” or “the enemy”.

4) Monotheism.There is one Male God and all other gods are Myth and must be destroyed. There is no feminine principle in deity, therefore women are not permitted to work within the priesthood. The male is believed to be made in “God’s” image. The divine origin of the male gives them authority over women, animals and nature. Women are allowed little autonomy due to their inferiority: they don't hold positions of power, own property, make sexual or reproductive choices, have basic rights of privacy, expression, or legal representation. They are viewed as chattel by the law rather than as persons with rights and individual will.
God is conceived as separate from nature. This is the “watch-maker God”, siting alone in his workshop, building a world for his amusement. The world itself is a thing to be conquered by man.

5) Primogeniture. Male children are preferred to females. Wealth passes from Father to Son, as does name- children have their father's name. Children are seen as possessions. The woman takes her husband’s name when she becomes his property and not her father's. Women may be killed if they are unfaithful, or are raped.


We have been living in Patriarchy in one form or another for approximately 5,000 years. In my opinion, that's 5,000 years of an unnatural social order. It's going to take a long time to even the playing field.

End of Part II