What Could Society Look Like if We Progressed Past Patriarchy?
By: Katrina Paulson
Tags: Patriarchy, Feminism, Culture, Equality, Philosophy

Living in a patriarchal society is what most people are familiar with. We don’t know any different. It’s been this way for thousands of years, and in the process, patriarchy has become as much a part of our human identity as our ambition and intellect.

Masculine perceived traits such as independence and assertiveness are believed to be superior qualities sought after by the masses. Anyone who doesn’t conform is considered weak and therefore disposable.

Today, most of us are just trying to survive the pandemic, figure out how to pay the bills, and keep our families together. We don’t have time to consider that life doesn’t have to be this way.

Our current path isn’t the only path. Patriarchy may be our most recent global social system, but there’s no rule saying it must be our last. In fact, now in the Digital Age, it appears we’re already moving away from it. So the real question is, which direction should we go?

When and how did patriarchy take over the world?

Everything changed when our Homo Sapien ancestors discovered agriculture about 12,000 years ago. The Hunting and Gathering lifestyle became irrelevant because now humans could stay in one place to grow food — versus roaming to find it. But discovery introduced another new concept — owning property.

Claiming a piece of land for yourself meant you also had to defend it against trespassers and thieves — both people and animals—this required physical strength. Since males tend to be physically stronger biologically than females, males were more suited for the role.

And because it was easier for men to claim and keep land, it meant daughters were the ones who left their families. Once a woman married, she left home to live with her husband on his property. Which means the sons stayed behind to inherit the land. This also meant male family members lived near each other, strengthening their bonds over generations.

It didn’t take long before men began claiming more than just land as property. First plants, then animals, followed by slaves, women, and children all followed shortly after. In the process, patriarchy all but eradicated women’s autonomy.

Patriarchy today

After thousands of years, women are still not viewed as equals — not in America, nor pretty much anywhere else in the world.

According to Women, Business and the Law 2021, a report recently published by the World Bank, there are only 10 countries (out of 194) where women legally have full equal rights as men — if you’re curious, they are Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Sweden.

Notice The United States isn’t listed. That’s because, according to a Statista dossier on women in the United States,

“[for 2021] The United States ranked at 91.3 percent below countries like Peru and Albania. It lost points because of a lack of laws guaranteeing equal pay and equal pensions, as well as because of notoriously bad laws around parental leave.”

Women still do not have equal legal rights as men in The United States of America. Maybe it’s because men still occupy the majority of powerful government positions.

Women don’t even have the right to our own bodies. Instead, it’s a bunch of white men sitting around a table discussing what they think is, or isn’t, ok when it comes to women’s reproduction. In February of 2021, Tennessee tried to pass a bill that would allow fathers to “veto power over abortion, with no exception for rape or incest.”

We clearly have a long way to go before reaching any actual equality. I won’t even go into the Gender Pay Gap because I hope we’re all familiar with it by now. Still, women’s feminist movements have made tremendous progress. In 2006 a fourth wave began when Tarana Burke started #MeToo, which took off in 2012 after Alyssa Milano tweeted it and is still going strong today.

In 2021, Kamala Harris became the first female — and the first Black, and first person of South Asian descent — Vice President of the United States. Exactly 101 years after the 19th Amendment gave *women the right to vote.

*Though black women were still often socially excluded from participating.