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Brook J. Sadler, Ph.D.

(This document constitutes my notes for a class lecture. It is not intended for publication or
distribution. All citations and sources are in my research notes. These notes represent a
distillation of an enormous quantity of research. This barely scratches the surface!)

Patriarchy 101

The claim that society is patriarchal is derived from the historical fact of literal patriarchy, in
which only males had political representation. Women and girls were legally and politically
“covered” by their husband or father, who as the “head of the household,” made all decisions for
them. This idea of the father as the representative of the family was upheld by political theorists,
by the writers of the Constitution, and by laws called “head and master” laws in the U.S.

In the U.S., the laws of coverture restricted women’s opportunities from the 18th century until
well into the 20th century:

Married women had no right to own property or keep wages they earned.

The could not take custody of their children or file for divorce.

If a woman left her husband, she could be forcibly returned to him.

Women had no legal or social recourse to resist physical or sexual abuse from their
husbands.

Women had no say in determining how family property or money was distributed or
used.

A woman was required by law to take her husband’s last name as her own, as a symbol of
her forfeiting her individual identity.

This is a very incomplete list of the restrictions placed on women under the laws of coverture.

Well into the 20th century, the laws of coverture continued to have effects. Married women could
not obtain a loan, or a credit card, or open a bank account without their husband’s permission in
the 1970s. In the late 19thcentury and until the mid-20th century, a woman could not obtain
contraception if she was not married. For much of our history, women were not allowed to enter
a university library or to keep a job after they were married. Women were barred from most
professions and openly discriminated against in colleges and jobs until the late 20th century.

The laws of coverture, as well as other institutional practices and social norms, continue to
influence American society in the 21st century. They affect social norms, the economic situation
of men and women, institutional structures and policies, laws, and more.
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When people today say that society is patriarchal, they are referring to the continuing gender
structure of society in which males exert power and control over females. Male dominance is
sometimes expressed through individual men’s attitudes about women: They express sexist
beliefs, have misogynistic behaviors, or overtly seek to limit women’s freedom and autonomy.

Male dominance is also sometimes expressed through the individual attitudes of women,
because women are raised in the same patriarchal society as men, learning the same norms and
expectations, and receiving the same education as men.

More importantly, patriarchy continues through political, institutional, and systemic structures
that exist even when individual men and women do not accept patriarchal attitudes and ideas.

Among the primary mechanisms for the continuation of patriarchy today are the following:

*the rejection of feminism and the misrepresentation of feminism

*the mis-education of youth and adults, erasing the history of patriarchy and of women’s
accomplishments

*the belief that some issues are simply “women’s issues”

* the belief that gender is a “zero-sum game”

*the complacency of men and women

*implicit bias (unconscious biases held even by people who renounce sexism)

Here is a summary of some of the many ways that patriarchy is manifest in American society.

 Women are underrepresented in the legislative and executive branches of government.

 Women are underrepresented in the judiciary.
 Women are economically disadvantaged by unequal pay.
 Women are underrepresented in corporate leadership.
 Women are underrepresented at the highest levels of the educational system.
 There are deeply ingrained biases against women in particular fields (e.g., STEM,
philosophy), which do not exist in some other nations.
 Women are more often victims of sexual violence and assault.
 Women’s achievements are excluded from major cultural institutions.
 Women’s bodies are regulated by men (especially, restrictions on bodily integrity and
reproductive choice).
 Women are more likely to live in poverty.
 After divorce, women’s financial situation worsens, while men’s improves.
 Women are sexually objectified.
 Monotheistic religions symbolically and literally exclude or subordinate the female.
 Women experience sexual discrimination in employment, college admissions and
awards, promotions, etc.
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 Women are subject to higher rates of harassment (street harassment, harassment at work,
online harassment), reflecting culturally prevalent misogyny.
 Institutional systems created around the needs of men do not accommodate women’s
bodies.
 Women are under-represented in media (as protagonists, as creators, directors).
 Women are stereotyped as passive, weak, emotional, irrational, etc.

Here are a few details in support of the summary.

 Women make less money than men in the U.S.

Women make, on average, 80 cents for every dollar a man makes.
This is due to many factors, not least of which is our history of “breadwinner” laws.

 Women are under-represented in political offices in the U.S.

Only one woman has received the nomination of a major party to run for President.
Women hold 107 seats in Congress of a total of 535. That is 20%.
Approximately 25% of state legislators are women.
Approximately 20-23% of mayors of large cities are women.
Only 6 of 50 governors are female (as of 2018).

 The U.S. has never had a female President or Vice President. Of 44 Presidents, zero
have been women. (Many other nations have had female heads of state/prime
ministers/presidents including, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Thailand, Germany,
New Zealand, Israel, Argentina, Iceland, the Philippines, Pakistan, Ireland, Poland,
Canada, Sri Lanka, Finland, Liberia, and many more. Even so, less than 10% of UN
member state nations had female leaders as of 2017.)

 Women are under-represented in business leadership.

Less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEO’s are women.

 Women are under-represented as college presidents.

Only 30% of college presidents are women. More than 50% of college students are
women.

 Women are more likely to live in poverty.

 Women are more likely to be victims of sexual assault, rape, and intimate partner
violence than men.

80% of victims of IPV are female.

 Women did not earn the right to vote in the U.S. until 1920. It took more than 100 years
of women’s organizing and protesting to gain the right to vote. It has been less than one
hundred years since women have had the power to represent their interests by voting.
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 Women did not have the right to serve on juries until the 1960s.

 There were no laws against sexual harassment or marital rape until the 1980s.

 Women were not admitted to the U.S. military academies until 1976. Women were not
allowed to fly in combat missions until 1991.

 Extensive research demonstrates bias against women in evaluating their resumes and
qualifications for job positions, for obtaining grants for scientific research, for getting
tenure, etc. [A rule of thumb: Women must demonstrate two-to-three times the level of
competence as men in order to be perceived as equally qualified. (e.g., 2-3x the
experience, education, publication record, etc.)]

 Symphony orchestras greatly increased the percentage of women musicians when they
instituted blind auditions (from about 3% to about 30%). Today, the top American
orchestras are about 60% male. Female orchestra conductors are exceedingly rare. It is
not possible to conduct blind auditions for conductors.

 When orchestras perform compositions by living composers, only 14.3% of compositions

are by women. Musical compositions by women account of only 1.8 % of all
performances by the top American orchestras.

 Major art museums continue to showcase almost exclusively works by male artists.

In the U.S., only 27% of exhibits were devoted to women artists between 2007 and 2013
at the top 70 art institutions.

 Books written by women are less likely to be reviewed in major publications.

 The majority of journalists featured in national newspapers and periodicals are male. (In
2017, in 8 of the top 15 literary periodicals, fewer than 40% of articles were written by
women.)

 Women’s academic scholarship, published through blind, peer review, is less likely to
be cited than men’s scholarship published in the very same academic journals. (In other
words, women succeed when the competition masks their gender, but are then ignored
when their gender is known.)

 Women pay taxes on feminine hygiene products, a necessity for most women for most of
their lives, but men do not pay taxes on Viagra.

 Of the 114 Justices who have served on the Supreme Court of the U.S., 108 have been
white men. There have been exactly 4 women total and three presently serving:

Sandra Day O’Connor [1981-2006]

Elena Kagan [2010-present]
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Sonia Sotomayor [2009- present]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg [1993-present]

(There have been two African American men. Thurgood Marshall [1967-1991] and
Clarence Thomas [1991-present].)

 Despite the fact that the majority of Americans support a woman’s right to choose
abortion and believe Roe v. Wade should not be overturned, lawmakers across the
country have been working to undermine this right. More Americans support the legal
right to abortion than oppose it, even among Republicans.

 Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry. Pornography is consumed at much higher

rates by men than by women. Pornography is consumed by Americans at substantially
higher rates than in other countries. The most common tropes in pornography involve the
submission of women.
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