The GOP’s Anti-Woke Crusade Is a Smokescreen for Attacking Women’s Equality
From Boardrooms to Congress, the Rich White Patriarchy Perpetuates Inequality for Women
The corrosive force of patriarchy erodes human attachments to each other, to nature, and our future.
AS I was writing this article, this headline, among many others, show-up on CNN, House conservative defies Johnson over remote voting for new moms in Congress, where the new Republican House of Representatives has banned new mothers to vote remotely for six weeks while they are recovering from birth, including Republican representatives. In reaction to this, Right-wing pro-life extremist, Anna Paulina Luna reached out to Democrats for help, according to the CNN article, Luna stated, “I don’t think that it’s right for the leadership, especially Republican leadership, that prides itself on being pro-family, to be so anti-family,” a defiant Luna told CNN. “And really, it’s a slap in the face to every single constituent that we’ve had that sent us to Washington DC.”
MEANWHILE, in the US Senate, Senator Tammy Duckworth confronted Trump’s nominee for the Department of Defense with questions about his ability to maintain order under Trump, for example, would he follow orders to invade another country. Hegseth does not believe that women should serve in combat. This is a very sensitive and passionate topic for Senator Duckworth who was serving as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army in 2004 when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by an RPG. The attack caused the helicopter to crash where Senator Duckworth lost both of her legs.
Last week, Republicans removed DEI from the military, so the US Air Force immediately stopped teaching recruits about the Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) from World War II. Apparently, Republicans see all Blacks and Women as inherently DEI hires, so any teaching about their history violates the new no-DEI rule. These Americans, regardless of their gender or color, put their lives at risk and helped us win the war. They were not DEI hires then anymore than they are today. This is about the rich White male patriarchy who is desperate to maintain control of the direction of our country.
These are just two of many articles showing how the threads of patriarchy are woven into all areas of life in the United States.
PATRIARCHY is a social system or structure where men hold the majority of power in political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and property ownership. Patriarchy usually includes the belief that men are superior to women which is used to justify subjugation of women to men.
A 2015 analysis by The New York Times and the Center for American Progress, found that there were more CEOs named "John" than women CEOs.
PATRIARCHY is the foundational aspect of America’s religious, political and economic systems. The Republican party is a patriarchal party. The female Republican Senators are clear, unapologetic supporters of the patriarchal system, in fact, they trip over each other for who can be the star cheerleader for the patriarchy, like Katie Britt. Watching Senator Britt’s 2023 post-State of the Union performance demonstrates this (it could of come straight from The Handmaid’s Tale). The other female GOP Senators are anti-abortion and anti-planned parenthood with Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins pretending to be a bit less so.
THE US HOUSE GOP has terrible women representatives like Taylor-Greene and Boebert getting the most attention, until Nancy Mace pushed her way into the spotlight with rhetoric about bathroom usage. Elise Stefanik is one of the worst, endorsing another candidate, Nick Langworthy, who praised Adolf Hitler on a radio show, saying he was the “ ‘kind of leader we need today.’ ” More telling is how only two of the female GOP Senators and none in the House have endorsed the ERA; there has been no fight for the ERA by Murkowski and Collins either.
It’s important to understand the system that underlies American institutions so that we can develop policies that target the perpetuation of it - which is worth doing because the patriarchy not only destroys American families, it is destroying our planet.***
A brief history of the patriarchy
THE PATRIARCHY was established around the world during the Neolithic period, which started after 10,000 BCE. Prior to that, during the Paleolithic period, there is no evidence of a patriarchy; it appears that humans lived in small to medium sized groups and treated each other as equals. During the Neolithic period, humans began to farm and over the millennia, civilizations formed.
THERE is a lot of debate about how the patriarchy formed, but it was probably related to many factors. For example, Leonard Shlain, wrote a compelling argument in his book, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, that the invention of writing may have contributed to its development. Other authors have speculated that as civilizations developed, war may have relegated women to domestic roles while at the same time elevated men to protector roles which over time led to kingdoms. Since fertile women were the only way a society could survive, they were not only protected but kidnapped.
At some point in human history, men learned that children were made through sexual intercourse, so the idea of men having a creative power along with women likely changed the dynamics depending upon the cultural meaning of this new information. For example, the change from female gods to male gods - like Zeus giving birth to through his naval or god making Adam with his finger. In any case, we know men became obsessed with having male children because that became the basis of monarchies that exist to this day.
Interestingly, it is likely that women suspected or knew that men played a role in pregnancy but were wise enough to keep it a secret up to some point in time when Eve gave Adam that apple that may have actually symbolized the passing of this knowledge.*
The Code of Hammurabi remains the first known documented patriarchal system which was written in stone in central Mesopotamia around 1750 BCE. The code explicitly legalized male dominance, limited women’s rights, and reinforced strict social hierarchies. Although Egypt had been around long before Hammurabi, women retained more rights there until the Ottomans took control of it in the 1500s. The Ottoman’s were firmly patriarchal - the empire itself was named after its male ruler, Osman I.
IT SEEMS that patriarchal systems took hold all around the world, in various forms, in a relatively short period of time from 10,000 to 3000 BCE. In Western Europe, Kingdoms were established. The Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE), Iron Age (1200–500 BCE) and Classical Era (500 BCE–1 AD) saw many kings come and go, until the Roman Empire rose to conquer much of the Western hemisphere, but other Kingdoms conquered Asia (Akkadian, Shang, Indus), Africa (Kush, Aksum, Ghana), South America (Norte Chico, Chavin, Inca) and North America (Olmec, Cahokia, Mayan, Aztec). Egypt did have at least two female rulers, Hatshepsut and Cleopatra, but their rule was tainted by the Patriarchy - in fact, Hatshepsut’s successor, Thutmose III, tried to erase her from history to re-establish the patriarchal norm, and Cleopatra’s role was supported by Julius Caesar and Marc Antony of Rome which made Egypt a province after her suicide after losing the battle of Actium.
ROME was solidly patriarchal. Although specific norms and aspects of the Roman patriarchy changed over time, it remained a patriarchy for it’s entirety. The Roman emperor was the “Pater Patriae,” father of the fatherland. Men controlled all governmental offices, all religious leadership, and women were not allowed to vote. “Paterfamilias,” father of the family, was the head of the household and had absolute authority over all family members. Fathers could kill their children if they felt they had good reason, or they could sell them into slavery. Nearly all women were under tutelage or guardianship of their father or husband or another man. Women were expected to exhibit “pudicitia,” modesty or chastity, showing respect and deference to men at all times, and a women’s worth was tied to their spouse or father, as a wife or daughter. Wealthier women had more freedom, but they were ultimately under the control of their husbands; if widowed, then their father, uncles or male siblings would exert control. Male and female subjects in art and writing were limited to portraying each in their proper roles.
YOU may think that Rome was a long time ago, and wonder what does that have to do with now, but Roman law continues to this day. The Roman empire collapsed, but Roman law continued, so in many ways, we still live under Roman rule. English law and the Napoleonic code were based on Roman law, and American law is based on English and Napoleonic code; the American government is somewhat based on Roman structure, for example, we have a Senate and the concept of checks and balances.
ROMAN LAW, both natural and common law, were deeply patriarchal and influenced English law in ways that reinforced the subjugation of women, including the idea of women as property or as legal dependents. This patriarchal legacy carried through to English law and, by extension, influenced the legal systems of countries like the United States. In other words, the British exported their sexism to their colonies who were forced to adopt it - America was no exception.
AMERICA was established towards the end of the Age of the Enlightenment, a period of time when rich White men in Western Europe were raised under the idea of the importance of the individual, personal freedom, and new ideas about private property. People no longer agreed that the King, the Pope or other male religious leaders were more important than any other man - all men were created equal. The Declaration of Independence demonstrated the idea of equality amongst White men, and this was enshrined in the US Constitution. In America, every man could be king of their home, on their own property. Their wives and children were their property too, under Coverture laws. Coverture meant that fathers were the head of the household, and the father held near complete authority over his children, legally and socially. Even in death, women rarely had full legal custody of children and assets, unless their were no males around to be guardian.
The problem with the patriarchy is that everyman wants to be there own king of their own little kingdom. Many men believe that they are entitled to be in charge of their family. They believe that women should do the domestic chores, and there are in fact, many women who believe this, too. But this approach to family life has destroyed it. Over the decades and centuries in American life, we have gone from extended families to nuclear families, to the atom-family unit, to singletons - people just not getting married and having no children.
THE SHIFT from extended family to nuclear family has been attributed to a variety of factors in society, but a driving force was the idea of the “American dream,” which was that each man could own his own home where he would reside as king over his household. Men were driven by this desire away from rural communities to the cities, then later to the suburbs. White males were given federal tax credits to build the homes that created the suburbs we know today. Children were raised to grow up and leave home at 18, work in a factory, buy a home and start their own family (kingdom). This system began to crack as soon as it was established. Women were incredibly unhappy. The loss of extended family was too much for women to bear. Men and women were not raised to be friends. Marriage and nuclear families were fine for men, but not for women. Women were bored and depressed, and separated from their social supports and friends, living in neighborhoods pretending to like their neighbors. Estimates were high that men and women were having affairs or living in “devitalized” marriages. The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, opened America’s eyes to the problems of the suburban nuclear family, but little was done to fix it. Women had to take things into their own hands and fight for rights to be treated as equal. The legal changes came easier than the social and cultural changes that women still struggle with to this day. Culture has been very slow to catch up to the fact that women are clearly men’s equal. (see my article, Women Suffer Men).
THE NUCLEAR family has been an abject failure, it’s just that most people are not aware of that to this day. One very important predictor of marital success if whether or not the couple each sees the other as their best friend. Without that social connection, each will feel alienated, empty and seek to fill this void with something else - addictions, infidelities, over working, mental illness, television watching or other things. Women are putting off marriage, having children outside of marriage, or just not getting married or having kids at all because the patriarchy does not understand this basic fact - women should be and need to be treated as equals. In South Korea, the problem of patriarchy is so destructive, there’s an entire organized movement against it; it’s been so successful that grade schools are having to close for lack of children. Nothing will end the patriarchy faster than a lack of children, but think of how bad this is for everyone. Many men are so entitled that they refuse to change even if it means that they have no children and society deteriorates.
Domestic violence is one aspect of patriarchy that impacts all families regardless of income or social status. The root of domestic violence is based in the historic and cultural ideas that women are the property of men. In the bible, for example, infidelity was when a married women slept with another man, but a married man could just as well sleep with a prostitute and not be considered an adulterer. Women had to marry the man who raped her because he became his property through the act of sex. Violence against women was permitted or ignored for centuries in Western society and America. In fact, Congress had to pass explicit laws against it - the Violence Against Women Act, originally authored by Joe Biden in 1994, then finally reauthorized again in 2022 under Joe Biden. Republicans refused to reauthorize the law from 2012 through 2022.
THE BACKLASH against women today is well organized, broad and very aggressive. The entire Republican party has launched an assault against women, starting with anti-abortion laws even in rape or incest, and they are pushing for anti-divorce and anti-contraception laws, anti-racial marriage laws, rolling back child labor laws, and who knows what’s next - Gilead?
THE PATRIARCHY has not just contributed to the destruction of the American family, it is also destroying our planet. The economic system that we all enjoy, so to speak, was and is designed to primarily benefit a small group of Billionaires who happen to be, with little exception, White men. For example, just four White men, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet own more wealth than 50% of Americans. Half of America’s wealth (over $100 Trillion dollars) is owned by just 10% of Americans who are mostly White men and their families. They yield almost all the political power in the United States in both political parties.
THIS ECONOMIC system has been driving income inequality since 1970, when neoliberalism (new libertarianism) was established. This system has been privatizing our public services and goods, meaning that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos rake in billions from NASA to fund their private companies for “space exploration” which really amounts to space tourism for the rich - at our expense - because when you own the Congress and President, they continue to write you checks. This economic system has squeezed the middle class and suppressed the working class. And this economic system has polluted our air, water, soil, and food, and has caused us to enter into a Climate Crisis that could very well upend human civilization.
SOME argue that the patriarchy was necessary for humans to establish civilizations, but this is a very weak argument lacking even basic evidence. How and why the patriarchy developed is a matter of debate, but it is not important. It is clear as ever that patriarchy is not a valid system in that it is not necessary for human survival or well-being, and in fact, it is an out of balance, destructive force.
EQUALITY in all areas of human life are necessary for human survival and well-being. Europe and America have made great progress in women’s rights, but there is a still a lot of progress to be made. Republicans are trying to re-establish a patriarchy and they must be stopped. Now is a time when it is very important for good men to support women’s rights, women in leadership roles, and women’s values that are lacking in the patriarchy - compassion, empathy, equality, veracity, integrity, concern for nature, concern for our children’s futures, and justice. These are qualities that have been relegated to women by the patriarchy, but are something that all men and women are capable of supporting.
Is Feminism the answer?
TO PUT it simply, yes. The patriarchy has spent a lot of time, money and effort to make feminism seem bad or evil. Christians call them Jezebels and Conservatives call them DEI hires and accuse them of extremism or sleeping their way to the top. Prior to the 1500’s women were doctors, nearly all medicine was practiced by women. As science became the prominent methodology for discovering “cures” (treatments) for diseases, and men started to practice medicine, they pushed women out of the field. In fact, the established laws against the practice of medicine by women. This movement started out, like most movements, in the field of philosophy which provided the reasoning or basis for laws that claimed that women were an emotional mess and that only men could practice science, only men could be “objective,” their view not tainted by emotions. The Catholic church supported this idea, labeled women as witches, and started killing women who continued to practice medicine; there are estimates that somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 women were killed. Over time, and until recently, the profession of medicine was strictly a male profession. Then came feminism. Regardless of the patriarchal propaganda you’ve heard and read about feminism, it is simply a movement to dismantle oppression, discrimination, and inequality based on gender. Modern feminism broadened its movement to include oppression against race, class and other genders, as Martin Luther King, Jr., pointed out - injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere - so, shouldn’t we all be fighting to be treated as equals?
Germaine Greer wrote that, the opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy, it is fraternity - we are all equals and all sister and brother - equals, after all. The point of feminism or any civil rights or human rights movement is not to replace one hierarchy with another, but to make us all equal.
THE FEMINIST movement gained a lot of progress from the 1950’s into the 1970’s. Women saw the passage of important laws that brought them closer to financial equality with men. However, the feminist movement did not change men. Men benefitted from feminism, the family had more income that men would decide how to spend, but she still had to “bring home the bacon,” do the cooking and dishes, fold the laundry, put the kids to bed, pay the bills, be expected to have sex even if she was too tired, and for some women, mow the lawn. Corporations used feminism as an excuse for cheaper labor (wage gap), driving down wages with an increased labor supply. This was not the fault of women, but a demonstration of the heartlessness of the rich White patriarchy.
AMERICANS love Capitalism. Decades of cold war propaganda promoting Capitalism with freedom versus the “godless communists” sticks with us today, but most Americans cannot accurately define Capitalism, Communism or Socialism. To make matters more complex, “communism” is a code word for racial integration. Rich White Southern racists used the word, “communist” to refer to people who were for racial segregation. Most Americans cannot define Socialism either, but feminism is also associated with each.
CAPITALISM is an economic system that is very broadly defined, so it’s difficult to be against it. For example, it includes the right of private individuals to own their business and profit from it - I really don’t know anyone who is against that idea. We all should have a right to own our own business and profit from it. The free market also seems like a good idea, for example, pricing and wages are set by a market rather than the government - most people are in favor of that, and most people agree there should be minimum wages as well as taxation to prevent concentration of wealth to just a few people, and laws to prevent monopolies. The real problem with Capitalism is that the capital - the money that is used to start a business, for example, is owned by a few super rich White men - bankers. In America, bankers get to decide who can get a loan to start a business, and guess who gets loans - other rich White males. This aspect of Capitalism maintains the patriarchal system that is in place across other institutions, business, industry, manufacturing and religion (churches are big business).
BANKERS loan money to businesses that create markets for their products through lobbying governments. For example, Ford, GM, and Tesla are able to sell cars in the US that are not allowed in other countries due to pollution or safety concerns. This system feeds itself. For example, Jeff Bezos was able to get $250,000 in start-up money from his Cuban-born step-father (Cuban refugees like his step-father received nearly $10 billion in aid to become successful American citizens). With this money he was able to secure additional investments. Once successful, Bezos used his wealth to make campaign contributions and pay lobbyists who then lobby the Congressman and President to pass laws that benefit his business, for example, to fund his private company, Blue Origin - space tourism for the rich. Elon Musk and Peter Theil provide additional examples of this process, where Tesla, Space X, and Palantir receive government grants and loans. Musk inherited wealth from his father who owned an emerald mine in South Africa that was stolen from the South Africans. Musk used this money to invest in other businesses, making more money and bought into Tesla.
For America to have equality, we need to establish a banking system where minority groups like women and people of color can get business loans as well. Until we fix this aspect of Capitalism, we will continue to see a concentration of wealth in the accounts of fewer men and it will continue to be a threat to democracy and a government that works for all of us, our children, and the future of our planet.
North Dakota is one example of an alternative banking system, a State owned and operated bank. This State bank is less influenced or somewhat insulated from the interests of for profit bankers, but it does work with private banks on various projects. The BND has loan programs for small businesses which are often women entrepreneurs. They have a PACE program, Partnership in Assisting Community Expansion, that provides loans for start-ups or expanding businesses. They also have the Flex PACE program which provides loans to childcare centers and healthcare facilities where women entrepreneurs are heavily represented. It also makes loans to farmers, many of who are women and need help financing land, equipment or operations. BND is the only State-owned bank in the country, but it could be a good model for how a banking system could be established to provide equal footing for women and other minority groups who often find the regular private commercial banking system inaccessible.
Credit (capital, money) is the lifeblood of a community and it is essential that it is available to all Americans if we are to have equality. For America to maintain its democracy (equality) and continue to make progress in human rights, we need to establish a fair banking system while at the same time prevent and dissolve monopolies, and properly tax the super rich.
“It is not possible for any woman to achieve the fullness of her own human potential until she has the right and opportunity to direct her own life and fulfill her own potential as a human being, regardless of the limits and needs of her sexual role.”
~ Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
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What is patriarchy?
THERE ARE distinct characteristics of patriarchy, the first being male dominance. In America, the patriarchy is specific to wealthy White males. The US Constitution gave voting power only to White male landowners - it couldn’t be more clear to aliens if they visited Earth as to who was in charge here. This was not limited to politics - the governance of every institution: religion, business and the American family were all headed by White men. Rich White men made the rules.
THE SECOND characteristic of a patriarchy, tied to male dominance is male privilege, but again, in America, it was Rich-White-male-privilege. There are many examples of privilege, but land ownership was probably the most important next to the ability to own a business. Educational opportunities were provided for men, while women had minimal or no formal education for much of Colonial and American history. Family life remained largely patriarchal and for most of America’s history, women had no common law right to inherit the marital property, and wealth was passed down through male lineage. Masculinity itself was and remains valued over femininity, and culturally, boys are treated much better than girls, for example, they have lighter expectations while at the same they are elevated to a higher status than girls.
THE THIRD characteristic is the subjugation of women as legal dependents. Roman and English law did not explicitly say that women were property, but they were treated as such. Marriage itself was an entirely patriarchal institution. The combination of laws that favored men over women, and the cultural practices that were passed down to children ensured that this system maintained itself. Women were raised to play the supportive role to men where marriage and motherhood were the only noble roles available to them. The famous psychologist, Carl Jung’s four archetypes of women, included: the virgin, the mother, the seductress, and the crone or wise woman, while male archetypes included, the man of action, romantic man, the man of words, and the spiritual man. These architypes hold true today, where formulaic films and books illustrating these cultural ideas of women and men’s cultural potentials are very common. It’s no wonder there exists an “imposter phenomenon” because women who are authors, or sexually assertive, or spiritual, or active often feel out of place or invalidated. The importance and impact of cultural symbols cannot be overstated.
THE FOURTH aspect of patriarchy is resistance to change. Patriarchy will resist change and will often resort to violence. This fact can be seen in every level of the patriarchy, from the family unit up to the presidency. From the man who divorces his second wife because he feels invalidated, to the the man who kills his wife and children related to chronic underemployment, or from the Supreme court who bans abortion, to the President who starts an insurrection to stay in power against the “woke” left. Woke, by the way, is a term that refers to awareness of inequality and the belief that all people should be treated as equal. It’s no wonder why “the right” or Republicans (conservatives) have declared war on wokeness.
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*How do we know there is a patriarchy? Arguments or claims that there is no such thing as a patriarchy are baseless and disingenuous, they should not be taken seriously. There is no shortage of defenders of the Billionaire White Male Patriarchy that includes those who benefit from it, and from those who gain temporary power, fame or wealth by joining it (e.g., Candace Owens, Ann Coulter, Amy Wax, Abigail Shrier, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Tomi Lahren, Christina Hoff Summers, Ayn Rand, Phyllis Schlafly, and the like). Then there are those who either refuse to see it, are blind to it, or genuinely believe that they are seen as equals from those in power.
The facts speak for themselves, starting with occupational segregation, where 90% or more of CEO’s are men, and so few women are in other positions leadership, for example in Congress, or that every President has been male. Second is that sticky wage gap, where women continue to earn less than men when performing the same or similar work. Research shows that as recent as 2023, women earn on average 83% of of what men earn, and when women of color are compared, it’s even worse. Some areas, like tech and finance have larger than average pay gaps. When women are in leadership roles, they are almost always conservative and cheerleaders of the patriarchy.
Professions are also highly segregated, by design. Prior to the 1960’s women were rarely allowed into traditional professions, such as law, medicine, architect, and accountant, and their related roles (judge, professor, manager, director). In the US, as male physicians sought more power, and fought to remove midwives and other practitioners out of reproductive treatment. The American Medical Association fought to make abortion illegal without the involvement of a male physician to save the mother’s life. Prior to this, abortion was entirely legal in the US.
Roles where women worked were not considered professions, but careers or jobs, like nursing which was not given professional status until around 1950. Men were excluded from nursing schools, but could be military or psychiatric nurses due to segregation and the belief that men were needed for restraining or carrying patients. The reason for the exclusion from nursing school was telling, Florence Nightingale, one of history’s most famous nurses, considered nursing a moral calling for women; she believe women had an innate capacity for caregiving and compassion, inferring that men did not, and that those were necessary qualities for nurses to have. The implication was that there was a natural order to things, male and female roles were determined by genes, not society, culture or parenting. Today, we know this to be completely false, but in the 1850’s, as the validity of religion had declined, this Darwinian way of justifying the idea that White men should be in charge was appealing to the patriarchy.
The STEM field is particularly weighted in favor of men over women. Gender differences emerge in grade school. The school system benefits males over females. Whereas females are already inclined to have better social skills, analytical and fine motor skills, whereas boys are inclined to have better gross motor skills, higher activity levels, and able to see the forest over the trees, boys come out ahead, well rounded, by grade 12. Around 7th grade, girls show a sharp decline in math and science interest and performance. This is driven by parents, society, and culture that associates math with male, so girls focus on English, language, arts and humanities. They are also socialized to be “boy crazy.” In some communities, like the Mormons, girls are even taught songs about finding a great Mormon boy to marry and bear children with. In American society, kids grow up watching hundreds of TV shows and movies where the lead role of the female is to be a supportive role to the White male. This hasn’t changed much, other than the same formula being applied to people of color in Hollywood. Turn on nearly any movie and you’ll see the lead female actor, in the moment of crisis, looking to the male lead, frenetically pleading to him, “what do we do now?!” The camera pans to him, and in a moment of calm music and stillness, he replies in a low, calm tone, “we’ll do… xyz.” Without question, often with praise, she becomes full of energy and inspiration and follows him to their happy ending of survival or victory.
Women are up against biases that are built like cement walls: when women are assertive, they are seen as bossy or difficult, whereas men are seen as strong leaders. We’ve all seen what’s it like for a woman to run for president, while the media covers the policy choice of her male opponent, they are covering her poor taste in dress, how she looks like a man, or too much like a woman. Making things worse is the problem of sexual harassment which for decades was blamed on victims of the harassment, not the perpetrator. The Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh hearings demonstrate how common the problem is and how difficult it is to address because we are relying on the perpetrators (mostly men) to make rules to protect the victims (mostly women), but the group with most of the power to enforce the laws and rules are men - because women who are not pro-patriarchs are grossly underrepresented in governing bodies.
Nothing demonstrates the presence of the patriarchy more than coverture laws that were on the books in the US into the 1980’s. Historically, in the United States, the default common law was that women were the property of men, and that all marital property belonged to the man; all property acquired during marriage was the property of the man, and he had the sole authority to manage and control it, and women had no right to the property after their husband’s death unless he arranged for that in his Will. Any income earned by the wife was the property of the husbands. Through the 1950’s, passports were issued to women in their spouse’s name, for example, “Mrs. John Doe.” Women gained more rights to have an abortion, in the 1960’s to 1980. However, the Christian Coalition of Rich White Males and the support of Ronald Reagan and the Republican party pushed back and made pro-life a primary aspect of their political platform. Women were not allowed to have their own credit card until 1974 - Congress has to pass a law to authorize this (Equal Credit Opportunity Act). Many banks required a woman’s husband to authorize accounts to be opened by their wife. It wasn’t until 1988 when another law had to be passed to give women the ability to own a business on their own (The Women’s Business Ownership Act). Women are America’s largest minority, so when they do open a business, it is eligible for minority support.
Affirmative Action laws in the 1960’s and 1970’s helped women gain access to Bachelor and Master degree educations. Nothing helped women gain economic independence more than Affirmative Action laws, especially White females. Prior to Affirmative Action, about 30% of Bachelor and Master degrees were earned by women, but by 1980, it was 49% and 40%, respectively, and today, it is 58% and 61%. In 1960, only about 10% of doctorate degrees were earned by women, but today it is around 54%.
No-fault divorce laws have also helped keep women out of poverty. Prior to no-fault divorce, women who wanted a divorce had to “prove-up” that there was a fault that differed from State-to-State. This was costly and stressful, so many women just chose to stay married or try to push their husband’s to file for divorce which could take years and be dangerous. The statistics speak for themselves, the suicide rate of women steeply dropped after no-fault divorce became the norm. Also, rates of women being killed by their spouses sharply declined. To date, women married to a Republican are 10 times more likely to be shot by their spouse than if they are married to a Democrat. About 50% to 70% of women divorce into poverty, but that is much lower than before no-fault divorce laws.
There are other aspects of American society where the patriarchy is on display: the lack of parental leave laws and policies; women are expected to be the primary caregiver during leave; women often face official and unofficial penalties for taking off time for their family compared to men; women are often put in positions of power as tokens representatives rather than for merit; and women are grossly underrepresented in leadership roles (glass ceiling). After writing all this, I have to point out that I am just scratching the surface on this topic.
There are some books that thoroughly cover this topic, here and here and here and here. I have no financial relationship with Amazon, I placed these here for reference only but you can probably find them at your local library. Here is the list:
A History of Women in America, Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman
America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, Gail Collins
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women, Estelle Freedman
The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
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**The story of Adam and Eve about the establishment of patriarchy. Contrary to what you’ve been taught by modern Christians, Eve was not Adam’s first love interest. Eve came along after Lilith (Isaiah 34, Lillete). The story of Lilith, like Eve, is an origin story to explain why people used amulets to protect newborn babies. The writers of the bible are obsessed with sex, so of course this story is specific to the meaning of sexual positions. The story goes that Lilith wanted to be “on top” while having sex, but Adam objected, stating that a woman cannot be on top, a man must be on top because to be on the bottom was subordinate, and man should never be subordinate to woman. Mesopotamians believed that the “riding” position robbed men of their “vitality” for a month, or cause diarrhea if they let a woman be on top - sort of like the myth that you’ll go blind if you masturbate. The story goes on to say that Lilith leaves the Garden of Eden, so god sends three angels to bring her back, but she refuses, proclaiming that she is going to torment men with her deviant sexuality, and afflict newborn babies with illness and with death, unless babies born are given an amulet to wear with the names of the three angels on it.
***Regardless of whether or not you believe in the climate emergency will not change the impact it has on you and everything important to you - especially your future. If you want to have children, you should be voting for Progressive Candidates, or pushing Moderate Democrats to be more progressive, or running for office yourself to promote bold laws to reduce carbon and methane emissions. We are well past the 1.5 zone and quickly entering 2.0. The impacts of this are already devastating, for example, the entire State of Florida is quickly becoming unlivable, Texas, Arizona, Southern California, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are not far behind. What happened in North Carolina may have been “a thousand year event,” but it is now certainly going to happen more often. The weather is unpredictable and dangerous, and insurance - the backbone of our economic system - is failing. The patriarchal system is fully responsible for the climate emergency.
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References
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Barry Nicholas, An Introduction to Roman Law
Jane F. Gardner, Women in Roman Law and Society
Susan Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian
H.F. Jolowicz and Barry Nicholas, Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law
R.C. van Caenegem, The Birth of the English Common Law
Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Patriarchy Wikipedia entry on the societal and institutional implications of patriarchy)
Neopatriarchy Wikipedia: Neopatriarchy
Emerald Insight: Workplace Patriarchy and Career Development
Financial Times: Italy's Gender Quota Laws
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract
The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
Barbara Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England
Dixon, Suzanne. "The Marriage Alliance in the Roman Aristocracy." Journal of Family History, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1985.
Discusses marriage as a patriarchal institution and its implications for women in Roman society.
Mousourakis, George. "The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law." International Journal of Legal History, 2003.
Ibbetson, David. "What is Legal History a History Of?" Cambridge Law Journal, Vol. 64, 2005.
Kelly, J.M. "The Reception of Roman Law in England." Irish Jurist, Vol. 12, 1977.
MacKinnon, Catharine A. "Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1982.
Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law)
The Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone (1765–1769)
Online Resources
Avalon Project - Yale Law School: https://avalon.law.yale.edu
The Institute for Feminist Legal Studies: https://ifls.osgoode.yorku.ca
Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University): https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu