Over the years, the practice of the patriarchy has sneaked into various social, economic, political, and legal organisations of the society. The term patriarchy refers to the framework where the men of the society predominantly enjoy and hold primary power in varied areas such as the control over the property, roles in terms of the political leaderships, moral authority, as well as the special privileges (Baldry and Cunneen, 2014). Thus, in simple terms it can be stated that in a patriarchal society, men are positioned as the supreme authority and the women as the followers. The fact that we live in the 21st century, has not improvised the practice of patriarchy, and women still face the practice of the same in varied areas. The work is intended to explore the various facets of the practice of patriarchy and thereby answering the question that “how are men positioned by patriarchy?” In first segment of the work, the meaning and the history of the practice would be discussed. This would be followed by the extension of the practice in various fields and thereby examining the position of men over the years. The work ends with the conclusion that justifies the analysis as conducted in various segments.
A society is a collection of various relationships. A patriarchal society refers to the society where the structure is defined by the male dominating power, and this extends to the individual relationships as well (Bryson, 2016). The term “power” is further related to the privileges. The societal system where the men enjoy greater power over the opposite gender, also get access to more privileges than the women, some of which are not even entitled to women at all (Amussen, 2018). The debate has been long in existence as to how and why the men are positioned in a certain way by the society. The traditional explanation to the subordinate position of the women is focussed around the reproductive capacity of women and the motherhood. This is further regarded as the prime goal of a woman’s life. This sexual division between men and women based on the physical anatomy, thereby defining their natural life functions are considered as natural and fair.
In wider terms, the patriarchy has extended to various institutional systems, and thus the furtherance of the male dominance over the women in general terms. One of the major facets of patriarchy and its progress is seen in development of the private property. In historical terms it has been seen that retainment of the power and property is centred on men, and that is where the another strong patriarchal characteristic arose from. In order to establish the rights over the property of the father, the mother’s right was overthrown. Women been domesticated and confined and the regulation control and oppression of their sexuality did this. The English society has not been spared by the patriarchy in inheritance. The first-born son in the family would gain the right of the entire estate of the father. In case, the eldest son would disgrace the family, the property would pass on to the next son in the family and not the daughter. Although, there was no express law that the women in the family cannot inherit the estate of the father, but the society practiced the same. Thus, the common though and practice that arose and is still being continued to some extent is this that the son or nephew to the head of the family shall inherit the assets of the family, because he would be more worthy of the same, than the women. After marriage, a women’s estate would be written in favour of her husband.
The practice has taken different other forms in various filed and institutions over the years. The practice of subordination over women has been experienced in forms like control, discrimination, exploitation, violence, oppression, disregard, and insult within the family and at workplaces, and others. One of the examples of daily life in which the women are positioned as inferior than men is the preference of the male child over the female one. Another example of the superior position of the men in the patriarchal society is laying the burden of the household work on the women. Some more of the instances of this position are sexual harassment at the workplace, men’s control over the sexual choices and bodies of women, lack of the educational opportunities for the girls, lack of women’s control over fertility and the reproductive choices, controlling the freedom and the mobility of the girls and many more.
Similarly there is an important relationship between genders and the professionalism. On analysis of the women’s increasing participation in the male centric professions, it has been found that there exist a number of problems women have in adjusting to the career patterns of the male (Witz, 2013). These problems are majorly focussed around the reconciliation of the family role and the job role. Though the modern roles of the men is viewed and practiced as both emotional and economic contribution to the family, but this role is still subordinate to the breadwinning norm in the patriarchal society (Cahn et al., 2018). This subordination still makes it difficult for the couples to intersect their roles and thus, the division of the household labour.
Another major facet of the patriarchal society is the existence of the male violence. The various types of violent activities that are exercised against the women in various institutions and scenarios of the society are- rape, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, battering, and many more (Scott-Samuel, Crawshaw, and Oakley, 2015). The list cannot be said to be exhaustive and a number of related issues and practices exist. The boys and the men have been consistently exposed to the legitimate acts of violent behaviour in both direct and the indirect ways. The direct ways may be in the form of the violent sports, or the kind of military training received by the males (Walby, 2013). The indirect ways refers to the projections made by the media. Thus, the male violence is not only embedded in the upbringing in the patriarchal society, but also a result of the notions projected through media.
However, patriarchy does not mean that the women have no rights at all. One of the major reasons of the existence of the superior position of the men in some of the societies is the lack of awareness, manner of upbringing and various ongoing religious and the legal practices. The practices like the child marriage and the female child abortion is still going on a number of countries around the globe. It would not be wrong to state them as social evil practices, due to which the women are still victimised. However, a number of movements and programmes have started with the intention to raise the women’s voice (Enloe, 2017). The first step to such a change should start within the family and the manner of upbringing of the male and the female children. Some of the developments that have been undertaken in the recent years in the modern societies are the election of the women leaders in the political, industrial and the financial domains across the globe. Another major development is the appreciation of the women participation in the sports. Similarly, maternity and paternity leaves are also other developments in recent societies, which is regarded as an important move towards equality of duties among men and women.
Thus, as per the discussions conducted in the previous parts it can be concluded that practice of patriarchy in the society has been existing since the ancient times. As mentioned in the earlier parts of the essay, the seed of the patriarchy is sown in terms of the physical strengths, anatomy, and thus the “natural” and “just” roles of the genders. The magnitude and the forms have been changing over the years, however one thing is common, i.e. the superior position of the men over women in such a society. The essay has discussed various forms and the ways in which the men exercise their superior position over women in the patriarchal society. Not only in the households, but also at workplaces and society as a whole, the women are regarded as subordinates to the opposite genders. One of the important aspects of the patriarchal society, i.e. the male violence has also been discussed in the essay. Thus, it can be stated that this practice has set the basic framework and the manner in which the women and men are portrayed differently even till today in the 21st century.
References
Amussen, S. D. (2018). The Contradictions of Patriarchy in Early Modern England. [online] Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12379
Baldry, E. and Cunneen, C. (2014) Imprisoned Indigenous women and the shadow of colonial patriarchy. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 47(2), pp. 276-298.
Bryson, V. (2016). Feminist political theory. 3rd ed. UK: Macmillan International Higher Education.
Cahn, N., Carbone, J., DeRose, L. and Wilcox, W. (2018) Unequal family lives. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Enloe, C. (2017). The big push: exposing and challenging the persistence of patriarchy. California: University of California Press.
Scott-Samuel, A., Crawshaw, P., & Oakley, A. (2015). “Men behaving badly”: patriarchy, public policy and health inequalities. International Journal of Men’s Health, 14(3).
Walby, S. (2013) Patriarchy at work: Patriarchal and capitalist relations in employment, 1800-1984. UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Witz, A. (2013) Professions and patriarchy. UK: Routledge.
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