It implies that men hold power in all the important institutions of society and that women are deprived of access to such power. It does not imply that women are either totally powerless or totally deprived of rights, influence, and resources. Women are a Sex. Women are a separate group due to their biological distinctiveness. The merit of using the term is that it clearly defines women, not as a subgroup or a minority group, but as half of the whole.
Men are the only other sex.
Obviously, we are here not referring to sexual activity, but to a biological given. Sexism and patriarchy mutually reinforce one another. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy Patriarchal attitudes. I refer to that cluster of collective values, beliefs, and ideas that deem rural women to be subordinate to rural men. It is not my argument that these patriarchal beliefs are absent in urban communities.