The root of human oppression is seen as authority and inequality. This is why it is the perfect ideological guide for destroying poverty, racism, and sexism. All these oppressions are systems of power based on hierarchy. Hierarchy means top-down, like a pyramid. Hierarchical constructions of power create positions of relative privilege and relative oppression.
Anarchism conceptualizes power differently.
Instead of power over, anarchism proposes power with, cooperation. This means that social systems and institutions should be based on cooperation. Power would rest in individuals and the collectives they freely associate into. Equality can have many different meanings. In regards to our anarchist political philosophy, we speak of equality in reference to power.