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Patriarchy has many definitions according
to, A Feminist Dictionary written by Cheris Kramarae and Paula A. Treichler. (Pandora Press 1989) For the purposes
of this project, I will condense.
“(Patriarchy is) a system originating in the household wherein the father
dominates, the structure then is reproduced throughout the society in gender relations .… [A]ny kind of group organized
in which males hold dominate power and determine what part females shall and shall not play … [H]as been described as
a way of structuring reality in terms of good/evil, redemption/guilt, authority/obedience, reward/punishment, power/powerless,
haves/havenots, master/slave … [S]ecurely fastened into institutions … A set of social relations between men,
which have a material base … [E]very avenue of power within a society, including the coercive force of the police, is
entirely in male hands … a sexual system of powering, which the male possesses superior power and economic privilege.”
(323-324)
I also am of the opinion many people don’t realize there was a time, not so far in the distant past
in terms of human evolution, 5,000 years ago, where men didn’t dominate womyn. It is commonly known as the Goddess Culture
era as popularized by the book, The Chalice & the Blade by Riane Eisler (1995). However, I reference again, A
Feminist Dictionary, which describes this period.
“Women alone held the monopoly on agriculture, and
the male believed them impregnated by the gods. From the moment he discovered at once his two capacities as a farmer and procreator,
he instituted the ‘greatest reversal’ to his own advantage.” (324)
The text goes on to say that
once man took possession of the land and of productivity, which later became industry, and of womyn’s bodies, in terms
of reproduction, the natural cause and effect was, overexploitation, over population and the destruction of the environment.
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