What is Patriarchy?

The concept of Patriarchy itself is not a contribution of feminist theories. Many social scientists in the nineteenth century wrote about it as a more civilized or complex form of organization compared to the primitive matriarchies. Engels referred to it as the earliest system of domination establishing that Patriarchy is “the world historical defeat of the female sex.” In this sense, it is said that Patriarchy was a form of political organization that distributed power unequally between men and women to the detriment of women. The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language Dictionary defines Patriarchy as “A primitive social organization in which authority is exercised by a male head of the family, extending this power even to distant relatives of the same lineage.” Feminist theories updated and expanded the understanding of Patriarchy in the second half of the twentieth century. In fact, the social sciences had left it behind precisely because it was considered only to apply to and characterize ancient civilizations. But for many feminists, Patriarchy is much more than civilizations that existed in the ancient past and goes beyond “the unequal distribution of power between men and women in certain aspects of our societies”, as many dictionaries still define it. On the contrary, most forms of feminism characterize Patriarchy as a present day unjust social system that subordinates, discriminates or is oppressive to women. As Carole Pateman writes, "The patriarchal construction of the difference between masculinity and femininity is the political difference between freedom and subjection." For me, the concept of Patriarchy includes all the socio-political mechanisms, which I call Patriarchal Institutions, which reproduce and exert male dominance over women. Feminist theory typically characterizes Patriarchy as a social construction, which can be overcome by revealing and critically analyzing its manifestations and institutions. Fixating on real and perceived biological differences between the two recognized sexes, men justify their domination on the basis of an alleged biological inferiority of women. Both feminist and non feminist thinkers recognize that Patriarchy has its historical origins in the family, the leadership (legal and practical) of which is exercised