“What according to Pateman, is patriarchy? Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.”
Patriarchy is generally defined as “a form of social organisation in which the father or eldest male is the head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line” (Oxford Dictionary, 2006) and therefore it is traditionally referred to within the family context. In her discussion on sexual contracts, Pateman takes the definition of patriarchy to a deeper level by looking at the term patriarchy from various socio-political and economic aspects against a three century context. By way of general definition, Pateman (p.19) defines patriarchy as a “form of political power” which no longer plays a prominent role in “modern political thought”, and quoting Elsenstein (p.22) states that it is no longer plausible in advanced industrial societies. However, the political language still infers from traditional perceptions of patriarchy. Pateman (p.22) holds that sexual male gender domination loses its strength when reference to such a power reduces itself to mere language. Indeed, Pateman, (p.21) making reference to Locke’s work raises the discussion of whether patriarchy goes beyond the concept of family, and questions whether patriarchy can be separated from the social and political. She holds that Locke’s ability to separate the two when discussing patriarchy was possible in the sexual contract, especially since the female gender was perceived as incapable of officially contributing to the political world (Jessica N. Grounds, n.d., p.275). Pateman (p.27) dismisses the role of politics based on blood ties since families can consist of adoptions (Maine) and therefore family members subordinated themselves to the head of the family.
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...women are known to raise their children alone, the hardship of doing so cannot be underestimated and subordinating to a male provider might seem a better alternative (Sorenson & McLanahan, 1989). Pateman (p.33) takes on a tone of surrender when she indicates that from a social perspective a women’s place still seems to be within the family, especially in light of legislative action which seems to reinforce this opinion. This stand is further supported by the view that women are the ones who mostly provide primary care to children, and thus governmental initiatives such as paid maternity leave or other type of support cannot but be based on this view. Pateman (p.34) seems to promote the idea that patriarchy can be overridden by shared parenting, but will this imply the need for men to keep or minimise their socio-political contribution and focus on their family unit?
The concepts that Kathleen Genson discusses reinforces the analysis Kramer presented in Chapter 4 “The Family and Intimate Relationships” of The Sociology of Gender. First and foremost, both authors would agree that family is a structure that institutionalizes and maintains gender norms. Both authors would also agree that “families tend to be organized around factors that the individual members cannot control.” In Genson’s chapter “Dilemmas of Involved Fatherhood,” the most prominent forces are the economy and social expectations, both listed and explained by Kramer. Genson’s explanation of how it is unfeasible for men to withdraw from the workforce and focus more time and energy on being involved fathers is an example of the economic factors.
It is a rare occurrence indeed to stumble upon a nonfiction article as raw and true as “The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was.” by Hope Edelman. The author of three nonfiction books, who has had her work published in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Seventeen magazine, writes about her expectations regarding an egalitarian marriage with equal parenting responsibilities, and compares them to the reality that comes from living in a household where both parents work full-time and cannot drop all of their responsibilities to care for a toddler. Edelman’s narrative is a flippant view on modern views of feminist relationships, from both the side of the feminist and the side of a woman whose marriage did not reflect those ideals. While she argues everyday gender roles, she may reach a deeper topic than just the sexes assigned roles of being either a nurturer or a provider, but never both. She mentions late in the article that the two
This ideology that women be accounted for the private lives, separate from men in the public lives is an overall result of what Patemen describes to be patriarchal- liberalism. This is where social construction theory take place. This idea of a patriarchy is a result of history. Rooted in the mid 19th century, the role of a woman happened to be limited to simply a dependent individual who has her own limitations that were imposed upon her by society, history and culture. It was viewed that the man work for his family so he could provide food while the mother ‘performed unpaid tasks’ like taking care of the children and cleaning. As we move towards our current generations, we see a shift between gender roles. There are stay at home fathers who take care of the children while the women work. Nature plus biology gives us this being(women), who physically differentiates from another being (man). Had she been given the chance she holds the same capacity, strength and intellect from that of a male she would be viewed as an equal rather than insignificant. However, through the influence of social initiation, relations and culture she was identified as dependent. This is proven by female figures such as Rhonda Rousey, Oprah Winfred and Molalla
Women are living in a patriarchal society which contributes to gender inequality. It dominates most of the institutions of society like; religion, the family politics, and the work place. The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences describes patriarchy as a social structural phenomenon in which males have the privilege of dominance over females, both visibly and subliminally. The value of women is often reduced to the role of Trophies, housekeepers and reproductive tools. “Because the subordination of women to men is a feature in the majority of all societies, patriarchy is often argued to be due to biology, such as women’s principal role in childbearing.”(Darity) Patriarchy is the cultural norm of many societies so it is seen as natural. “Bloodchild” challenges how natural the role is by reversing the roles and showing a parasitic male pregnancy.
When intensive mothers are busy with thier responsibilities in the public sphere, due to their belief that a mother is the central caregiver, their temporary replacement must exclusively be female (Hays 414). Even with a female nanny who “leaves the place in a mess, makes a petty point of not putting the dishwasher on […], never gives the correct change from the supermarket and “loses” all the receipts” (Pearson 84), Kate still makes every effort to keep the nanny in her family. From the perspective of intensive mothers, men are not capable of providing the same quality of care that a woman is able to provide (Hays 414). From a gender essentialist perspective, Kate argues that “Emily and Ben need me, and it’s me that they want. […] Daddy is the ocean; Mummy is the port, the safe haven they nestle in to gain the courage to venture farther and farther out each time” (Pearson 169). Therefore, intensive mothers find “alternate mothers,” that is, credentialed female child-care providers (Hays 412) such as Paula, Kate’s nanny, as well as Jo, Alice’s nanny who are able to promote the intellectual enrichment of their
In Letha Scanzoni’s book Men, Women, and Change: A Sociology of Marriage and Family she observes that a wife’s duty was “to please her husband...to train the children so that they would reflect credit on her husband”(205). Alongside the wife’s duties Scanzoni provides the husband’s duty to “provide economic resources”(207).These expectations have long been changed, since then these have become common courtesies. Today, we see less and less of the providing father, homemaking wife and respectable children family structure. We are now seeing what sociologists call the senior-partner/junior-partner structure. Women and mothers are now opting for the choice to work and provide more economic resources for the family. This has changed those expected duties of both men and women in a family scene. A working mother more or less abandons the role of homemaker, to become a “breadwinning” mother, and the father stays his course with his work and provide for the family. Suzanne M. Bianchi in her book Changing Rhythms of American Family Life comments on the effect of mothers working and the time they spend in the home. “Mothers are working more and including their children in their leisure time” (Chapter 10), now that ...
Single women raising families has become a recent trend. A sense of how far we as a society have come since Shakespeare's time to today verifies that male dominance is dying out. We as a society have shifted towards equality.
Johnson argues that patriarchy is made up of more than just individuals. Systems are more complex than people (Johnson 92). Within a system there are different parts the come together to form a whole. In terms of patriarchy, these parts are the different standards and ideals that patriarchy upholds. The three facets of patriarchy are male centered, male identified, and male dominated. Also patriarchy is not just driven by men, women can also play a role in its continuation. Believing in the equality of men and women is not enough to challenge the system (Johnson 94). Our culture must break down and question the parts of the patriarchal system in order to lessen its grip on our culture.
... “ corporations have done little to accommodate the needs of working parents, and that the government has done little to prod them” ( ) Essentially Hochschild argues that change is possible but really only through government intervention and policy (re)formation. Although the economy was able to transform women it was not able to transform the rest of society. Thus it is up to the government and the corporate sector to do so. If the government were to create “a safer environment for the two-job family” and families in general, men would be drawn out of their gender roles into the lives of children. As a result, women would be greater supported and society as a whole would gear its culture towards a more family oriented atmosphere rather than a capitalistic one. ( )
A while back women were known as the children care takers and men as the breadwinners. In the satirical essay “I want a wife” (1971) by Judy Brandy the quote “I want a wife to take care of my children” suggests that it is a “wife’s role” to take care of children. It also lists how a wife must meet the needs of the children as well as her husbands. In today’s world it is pretty much the same. When a child is born the women ...
explores not only the way in which patriarchal society, through its concepts of gender , its objectification of women in gender roles, and its institutionalization of marriage, constrains and oppresses women, but also the way in which it, ultimately, erases women and feminine desires. Because women are only secondary and other, they become the invisible counterparts to their husbands, with no desires, no voice, no identity. (Wohlpart 3).
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
Before the beginning of the women's rights movements in the late 19th century patriarchy, or a society dominated by males, was the norm in America. Men used sex and marriage to objectify and suppress women in order to maintain a society controlled strictly by males. The foundation of patriarchy was rooted deeply in the marital roles of men and women, one dominant, and the other submissive. Sex and marriage served as a mechanisms to shape the images of men and women in society. The system of patriarchy fed into itself to keep it going generation after generation.
Men have the same rights and obligations, as a child’s birth mother, to spend quality time, bond with, and care for a new baby. With some families living isolated from close relatives, it may be difficult for the mother’s family to support her after the birth of the child. “A study released in January found that fathers who took two or more weeks of leave upon their child's birth are more likely to be involved in the direct care of their children beyond leave” (Gringleburg). The time proceeding childbirth is the most stressful and tedious time. Parents have to adjust to the new baby and his or her schedule, especially the mother. With the both parents home, a lot of the stress is taken off the mother be...
An insistence on ‘positive images’ obscures the fact that ‘nice’ images might at times be pernicious as overtly degrading ones providing a bourgeois façade for paternalism, a more pervasive racism’ -Robert Stam and Louise Spence Colonialism, Racism and Representation. The patriarchal ideology is based on structures of power relations in which males are seen to be the dominant/superior sex. Patriarchy is concerned with the controlling of women, production and reproduction. Feminist Theorist Sylvia Walby, in her book Theorizing Patriarchy posits that patriarchy is “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (Walby, 1990).