Kandiyoti's Classic Patriarchy

Kandiyoti begins her analysis with a description of the multiple instances where the term patriarchy has been used in relation to the Middle East, before she goes on to define it for her own purposes. Radical feminists used the term as a means to explain the degrading placement of value on women, while marxists saw the male “superiority” of a patriarchal system as another classist, and thereby evil, category for the separation of people. By describing the changes in purpose that the term patriarchy has undergone, Kandiyoti begins to shape her own definition of patriarchy. By her meaning, patriarchy is the historical and social, inequality between the genders, in favor of males, that has an influence in multiple aspects of everyday life, including but not limited to; sustaining the family unit or the women’s roles in the social order.

“Classic Patriarchy”, as Kandiyoti believes it to be, describes the male-lead households, that focus on the

So when women stand against some of the preferences or desires of the men in their lives without truly defying those, they are making a patriarchal bargain. They are not changing the way society runs, nor are they outwardly refusing the wishes of their so-called guardians, but they are working within that set of constraints to better their own position. In some instances the ways that women bargain within their patriarchal system have worked to slowly change the manner in which women are treated. Eventually the small liberties that are taken, will become ingrained in the society’s fabric and it these small things will no longer need a battle to achieve. In many ways, it seems as though these patriarchal bargains are a way for women to get ahead, without damaging their societal place, even if they must be exceptionally careful with how much they give, as they take from the male