The Issue Of Patriarchy And Matriarchy In Society

Does people really want to live in a society where men are entitled to be in charge and dominate women? Well, even if you don't want to, you don't seem to have any other option. You have to live in this society, and which is basically a Patriarchal society. The English term "patriarch" derives from the Greek 'patriarches', which is actually made of two words - 'pater' meaning "father" and 'arches' meaning "head" or "founder". A patriarch is the head of the house, a family, or a society, or a clan, or a group, or a country. It is the conceptualization of how men are seen as better than, more respected than, and hold more privileges than women. Although patriarchy is set up in a way to benefit men, it can also hurt men in many ways, as men are under the constant scrutiny of the fabricated norms that patriarchy has put in place. And, moreover patriarchal society is structured in a way where, people can’t do anything to stop patriarchy. People just go with the flow to continue the system of patriarchy, everyone including the women, and children play a role in this society for this flourishment of patriarchy.

Patriarchy is now not just steered by men, women can also play a role in its continuation. Believing in the equality of men and women is now not ample to defeat the system. Our society have to break down and question the components of the patriarchal system in order to reduce its grasp on our culture. Based on the patriarchal society, women are seen weak, timid and obedient to men. The best accomplishment the women can get in their life is, marriage and giving birth to child, and not only any kind of child but giving birth to a male child. And on the other hand, men are supposed to be strong, determined, controlling, main supporter financially and the savior of the family. Well, women have changed a lot nowadays comparing to the last few centuries, they did not have any rights at all, they were considered their father’s property before marriage, and their husband’s property after marriage.

Domestic violence has been one of the main concern in a patriarchal society. Men feels that they can do whatever they want to do with his wife. Because, men gets the impression from his childhood that, as they are living in a patriarchal society, their wife is their slave. And the wives are supposed to do whatever they are being told by their husband. It is not always the man's fault, because since his childhood, he has been seeing his father, was violent against his mother. So, he got the image, it is entirely okay to hurt women. Moreover, people say education is the root of wisdom, and if it was really the root of wisdom, men would have stopped their violent and aggressive manners to their wife. But, even in this century lot of men are physical with their partners, why? Because the society has shaped us in this way. Education is not always the road to being humane. It has to come from family teachings, and from the society. Women in the United States are free from dowries, being a property of their husbands and are also capable of working outside the home, but still these women can not even escape the violent acts of their husbands. And in many cases, if these women raise their voice, they might be lucky enough to get justice, but this is only in the European countries. This does not happen in the eastern side of the world. If a woman tries to raise her voice, the husband does not even bother to murder her wife, or burn her to death and claim it as a suicidal act. And, this is a very acceptable exercise in Eastern countries.

Patriarchy is a division of gender roles based on their biological differences. Patriarchal society was not meant to be a bad society. It was created because, males and females have different roles in their life, a woman is naturally designed for caring and taking care of their children and their husband and do the household works. On the other hand, a man is supposed to work for his family and keep everyone happy in his family. Patriarchy was designed to be a loving and a peaceful family, men were supposed to depend on their wives for care and affection and their wives were supposed to depend on their husbands to be loved and be supported and protect them from any harm. It was not about who dominating whom, it was plainly man doing his job, and woman doing her job based on their gender roles. But as humans evolved, this simple mentality changed, and the actual definition of patriarchy transformed into something threatening. But gradually, as men are stronger than women physically, man started controlling and dominating their wife.

According to Meghal Sumitra, women are born free, but in the patriarchal society they were in chains. They are considered as wife, mother, sister and were always looked as inferior human beings. Additionally, wives are the ones who has to sacrifice the most in a patriarchal society. They has to be hard worker, modest, know how to cook, how to do all the household chores and always contribute to the well being of the family. Another important thing is, most families in eastern countries neither want their daughters to get educated nor, want their daughters to get out of the house. Unmarried and innocent girls are considered honor and purity for the family, and on the other hand men who works hard at a very young age, or get a good education is honored and respected in the society. Men barely has to sacrifice anything in their life. Farah Adil furthermore adds that, once a boy grows, his habits of dressing, eating, attitudes, and relationships are all socialized constantly with the thought of masculinity. And masculinity dominates femininity(65).

Children are meant to be loved and cared, and create an emotional bond with their parents. A child can not buy a mother’s affection and care, nor can buy it’s father’s wisdom and knowledge. Love has to be authentic in the family, and it has to come from the parents equally. And this genuine love is only possible in a family where the father depends on the mother and the mother depends on the father. Where father and mother will love each other unconditionally. With the evolution of human beings the real definition of the word “patriarchy” has changed a lot too. Therefore we should try our best to educate our children and ourselves the real meaning of patriarchy and go back to redefining ourselves with the definition of patriarchy.