patriarchy

play

noun pa·tri·ar·chy \-ˌär-kē\

Definition of patriarchy

plural

patriarchies

1 : social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power
2 : a society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of patriarchy <For 20 years the country was ruled as a patriarchy.>

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Examples of patriarchy in a sentence

For 20 years, the country was ruled as a patriarchy.
a region in which patriarchy is practiced

Did You Know?

With its root -arch, meaning "ruler, leader", a patriarch is a man who dominates something, even if it's just a family. In Christianity, the term is used for a few leading figures who appear early in the Old Testament, including Methuselah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in the Eastern Orthodox church, a patriarch is usually the equivalent of a bishop. Outside of the field of anthropology, patriarchy didn't start to be used much until the 1970s, when the women's movement gained a huge following. Many feminists have claimed that all Western societies are patriarchal—that is, that they systematically enable men to dominate women. But there's plenty of disagreement about how this is done, and the word isn't discussed as often as it used to be.

1632

First Known Use of patriarchy

1632

Other Anthropology Terms

ectomorph, ethnography, prehistory, yurt

PATRIARCHY Defined for English Language Learners

patriarchy

play

noun pa·tri·ar·chy \-ˌär-kē\

Definition of patriarchy for English Language Learners

: a family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men
: a social system in which family members are related to each other through their fathers