Patriarchal vs. matriarchal Respect for women varies from culture to culture.

The main difference seems to be between Patriarchal societies (where power resides with men) and Matriarchal (where power resides with women). Almost all Judeo/Christian societies are patriarchal where as man! "primitive" cultures are Matriarchal. #elieve it or not in some societies women own the propert! and pass it down to their dau$hters. %omen are the leaders and ma&e the important decisions. And !es it wor&s 'ust fine. (o there is no inherent reason wh! women shouldn)t be treated e*uall!. M! understandin$ (althou$h + don)t have an! fi$ures on hand) is that Matriarchal societies are far less violent. +n pa$an belief women or should + sa! feminitit! is worshipped (as is mother nature) since women are the ones that brin$ new life into the world. Pa$anism has alwa!s been repressed b! or$ani,ed reli$ion as the! fear and supress the animal we all have within. +n the )-.s women became aware of the discrimination and double standard imposed upon them b! this male dominated societ!. This is because suddenl! women became part of the wor&force but weren)t treated e*uall!. +t)s *uite understandable since men hadn)t had to compete with women before. /eminism became a ver! powerful movement in America and did help liberate women from some of the stereot!pes. Men were e0tremel! defensive for awhile as it)s difficult to chan$e these in$rained patterns of thin&in$. (A lotta co$nitive dissonance $oin$ on there) 1owada!s women do have more power and opportunities but the! still have far to $o to counter centuries (or millenia) of cultural bias. +n m! opinion societ! would $reatl! benefit from a return to Matriarch! as the violence (almost entirel! male in ori$in) has $otten out of hand. (ome people sa! that it)s men)s nature to compete for women and if it ta&es a fist fi$ht or a whole war it)s somethin$ we should 'ust accept as an e0pression of our "animal nature". #ullshit. %hile there are man! animals that do fi$ht for mates the! rarel! fi$ht to the death. 2nl! humans the "hi$hest species" does this and for far less reason than matin$. 2n the positive side chan$in$ roles is somethin$ not onl! challen$in$ but ver! enli$htenin$. 3owever it will ta&e man! $enerations before men and women can 'ust be themselves without societ! dictatin$ the roles. +t)s our a$in$ social and reli$ious institutions that are slow to accept chan$e. 4ven bi$ business and $overnment are unwillin$ to share power with women as lon$ as the "$ood ol) bo!s" are still around. 5ive it a couple of $enerations more and ma!be we won)t have to be discussin$ this an!more