"Patriarchy"?
![](http://megalodon.jp/get_contents/200435211)
Patriarchy (n.): a family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men
And according to Princeton University:
Patriarchy is a multidimensional condition of power and status. Whyte’s 1978 comprehensive study 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. A place like Saudi Arabia comes to mind as well as institutions like the Catholic Church in which women are not entirely excluded (i.e., nuns) but are kept from positions of real power (i.e., the priesthood and the papacy).
However, at least in the United States…
- women can (easily) control property: they can rent apartments, buy a house or land, own a business, and inherit and/or will their property to others.
- there are plenty of “housewives”/stay-at-home mothers, but women are typically expected to find a job and work for a living in the same way that men are, and there is no wage gap between male and female workers.
- though it’s hard to say given that domestic violence stories focus almost solely on male-on-female violence, I might argue that women often have more domestic authority than men; for example, they have more control of their family’s disposable income and are far more likely to get custody of their children in case of a divorce.
- "absence of ritualized female solidarity" - well, I think we know that’s not applicable to the US, if Tumblr is any indication.
- aside from states that have made abortion difficult to obtain, women control their own bodies and sexuality, and aside from where it is an issue of LGBT+ equality, women have the power to marry (and divorce) whom they choose, when they choose.
- Many industries (and certainly most offices that I’ve seen) are relatively evenly balanced between men and women. As for “community decision making,” women are more likely to vote than men, so while it would be nice to have more women running for office, women nevertheless have more of a say in who gets elected.
I realize I didn’t refute or address all ten points. 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.
Then maybe they’ll have something worth actually complaining about.