There is no factual evidence of a Patriarchy existing in first-world countries. If you can prove The Patriarchy exists in the USA, I will delete my blog. Men have such systematic disadvantages leveled at them, it’s impossible for anyone to claim that there is a heavily male-based society which favors men and gives them extra privileges based on their gender. Besides, it’s entirely possible to argue that our society is more Matriarchal (I don’t think it is, but it can be argued). The majority of voters are female (2), the majority of the entire US population is female, plus females have more economic power and reproductive rights than men in the United States. Women enjoy more legal freedom (child custody, police bias in their favor, alimony, etc.) and social positivism in addition to holding the majority of political power and wealth in the USA. Women have a lot more raw power in the US than many believe. Naturally I’m not claiming that men are more of a victim in society than women are, as both genders can have advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation at hand, but rather I’m pointing out that there is no Patriarchy here. (Do click that link. It’s a bit long and I don’t necessarily agree with everything, but it’s extremely informative.)
A Patriarchy is often defined as “a system of governing where men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.” The USA has no such government. Female politicians/judges/CEOs exist, along with the voting gap which gives women political power. Patriarchy is also defined as “family or society in which authority is vested in males, through whom descent and inheritance are traced” or “hypothetical social system in which the father or a male elder has absolute authority over the family group; by extension, one or more men (as in a council) exert absolute authority over the community as a whole.” No matter what definition of “patriarchy” you use, the term applies to ZERO first-world countries. Too often is The Patriarchy used as a scapegoat, but this is a huge fallacy since it does not exist in any tangible form which might allow it to be used as a scapegoat. Even if it did exist, it might not even be as bad as people claim it would be.
According to a page on the Princeton University website:
Patriarchy is a multidimensional condition of power and status. A comprehensive study by Martin Whyte in 1978 examined 52 indicators of patriarchy, which corresponded to 10 relatively independent dimensions. The ten dimensions are:
- lack of property control by women
- lack of power of women in kinship contexts
- low value placed on the lives of women
- low value placed on the labor of women
- lack of domestic authority of women
- absence of ritualized female solidarity
- absence of control over women’s marital and sexual lives
- absence of ritualized fear of women
- lack of male-female joint participation in warfare, work, and community decision making
- lack of women’s indirect influence on decision making
There are undeniably societies in the world today that are patriarchies, such as Saudi Arabia. Women are excluded from many aspects of decent living and aren't even allowed to drive in some countries. Iraq, in March of 2014, was attempting to legalize rape of women and child marriage. THAT is what a Patriarchy looks like. Institutions like the Catholic Church are also patriarchal in how women are not entirely excluded (nuns) but are kept from positions of real power (priesthood, the papacy). If we examine the 10 factors above, we find that the USA is not a Patriarchy:
- Women control quite a bit of property. There are no visible gender barriers when it comes to land ownership, renting, etc. (married couples own the majority of homes and the race gap is the most significant when it comes to ownership of homes). 50% of estates worth more than $5 million are controlled by women, compared with 35% controlled by men. The homeless adult male population is more than double the amount of homeless adult women.
- There's no evidence that women have a lack of power here.
- The lives of men are viewed as less valuable than those of women. Men are 77% of murder victims, commit 3-10 times as many suicides as women, are 93% of workplace deaths and accidents, tend to hold more dangerous jobs than women, and are 97% of combat-related deaths.
- Women are approximately half of the labor force (almost 60% of women and 70% of men work) and make equal money for equal work. The "wage gap" does not exist and multiple sources prove this.
- Women have domestic authority. Women have more overall wealth than men and spend more - they control 88% of spending and 75% of household finances. Men are responsible for only 17% of consumer purchases. Women receive custody of children in about 84% of custody cases and file for divorce more than men. When it comes to domestic abuse, hundreds of studies show that domestic violence is committed almost equally by women and men (and here is a list of over 500 studies from 1977 to 2013), yet female shelters greatly outnumber male shelters. Only 9 states in the USA have shelters which offer help to abused men, while almost every state (if not all) have at least one shelter for women. Most domestic abuse programs are biased and refuse to acknowledge male victims, or treat them with blatant hostility.
- There's a lot of female solidarity, especially over the internet (Tumblr is a good example) and with the relative popularity of Feminism.
- Women have complete control over their marital and sexual lives. Some states have attempted to make abortions difficult to obtain, but as women are the majority of voters (see #10 below) they're primarily responsible for what politicians exert power.
- "Absence of ritualized fear of women" doesn't really make sense, because in any half-decent society there won't be ritualized fear of any gender. Despite the terrible actions of some women (child abuse, murder, bullying, pedophilia, rape, telling children to make up stories about abuse, etc), people do not fear women as a whole. The majority of crimes are committed against men, particularly young black men.
- There is joint participation in work and community decision making. Women do participate in warfare to an extent, but it is not quite "joint" participation because the life of a woman is generally viewed as more valuable than a man's (see #3 above).
- Women have a large influence on decision making, both direct and indirect. A gender gap has existed for years when it comes to voting, which favors women and gives them a large amount of political say. Female politicians and judges are also steadily increasing in number.
In the USA, women are not oppressed simply for being women. "Ultimately, however, women have the choice to wear the kinds of clothes they like; vote; pursue almost any career; drive a car; live where and with whom they want to; have children (or not); get married (or not); cut their hair; have sex with whom they choose, etc. While many people may criticize them for making what they deem “incorrect” or “inappropriate” choices, no patriarch or patriarchal authority is going to punish women for making them. There is no patriarchy. There may be the vestiges of one, but SJWs and Tumblr feminists should ask the women who had to live coverture, or the girls and young women elsewhere in the world who are still forced to marry before their eighteenth birthday (or even puberty) what it feels like to live under a patriarchy." (via greekgodsforsocialjustice)
Some patriarchy-themed things:
- http://hagakura.tumblr.com/post/65118295564
- http://hagakura.tumblr.com/post/70232843444
- http://permutationofninjas.org/post/30120518447/
- http://just-smith.tumblr.com/post/10329841443/
- http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/09/23/yes_patriarchy_is_dead_the_feminists_prove_it_120031.html
The “men’s rights to vote were never infringed” argument I've seen floating around is very easily countered. In the early history of the USA, only 10-15% of the male population was allowed to vote; voting was restricted based on wealth and land ownership, excluding the majority of men (note that both black and white men could vote at this time). Women were typically not landowners, but there were no laws in place specifically forbidding women from voting, and records show that women did engage in voting - they simply had the same restrictions as men. The original US constitution failed to specify voting laws based on gender, and left this up to the individual states. Literacy tests were imposed as voting laws became more lenient, in an attempt to block slaves and poor people from voting. 1870 brought the 15th Amendment and made it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, or slave/free status. For women, specifically, laws varied by state until the 1919 19th Amendment. It’s interesting to note that many prominent women’s rights advocates, such as Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, actually opposed the 14th and 15th amendments (giving rights to non-whites) since they did not include women. This was basically saying “if we can’t have something, then neither can anyone else” which was not productive. Instead of allowing for a natural progression of human rights being recognized, the feminists of the time essentially supported a racist restriction of rights. In 1924 the US passed the Indian Citizenship Act, granting all Native Americans the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote in federal elections. So women had the right to vote before the native population of America.
(source)
If you believe The Patriarchy does exist, I have some questions for you: what is it? How do you define it, compared to other people’s definitions of it, since everyone seems to think it’s something slightly different? How does one smash/dismantle it? What are you personally doing to ensure the downfall of this mysterious Patriarchy? Are you sure you’re not imagining The Patriarchy?