Define patriarchy. How does patriarchy manifest in interpersonal relations? (2018)
Literally “rule of the father”, patriarchy began in Max Weber’s work as patriarchalism, a form of traditional authority held by the household head. Feminist sociology rebuilt it into a system of gendered power. That power is reproduced less by law or force than in everyday relations between spouses, parents and children, siblings and kin.
Defining patriarchy
- Kate Millett (Sexual Politics, 1970): patriarchy is a political institution in which male dominance is sustained through socialisation and “power-structured relationships”. Hence the feminist slogan that the personal is political.
- Sylvia Walby (Theorizing Patriarchy, 1990): “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women.” It works through six structures: household production, paid work, the state, male violence, sexuality and culture.
- Gerda Lerner (The Creation of Patriarchy, 1986) showed that it is historical, not natural.
- Uma Chakravarti (“Brahmanical patriarchy”, 1993) gives the Indian form: caste purity rests on controlling women’s sexuality through endogamy.
Manifestations in interpersonal relations
- Husband and wife: authority over money, mobility and decisions. In a Pew Research Center survey (2019–20), 87% of Indians agreed that a wife must always obey her husband. Nearly 30% of ever-married women report spousal violence (NFHS-5, 2019–21). Marital rape is still an exception to the rape law.
- Parents and children: Leela Dube (“On the Construction of Gender”, 1988) showed how Hindu girls learn subordination through food, space, dress and the idea that they are paraya dhan, someone else’s wealth. Son preference skews the sex ratio at birth to 929 girls per 1,000 boys (NFHS-5).
- In-laws and senior women: Deniz Kandiyoti’s “patriarchal bargain” (1988) explains why mothers-in-law control daughters-in-law. Authority over younger women is their delayed reward for early submission.
- Brothers and sisters: brothers act as protectors and guardians of a sister’s honour. This protection turns into control over her friendships and choice of spouse. Prem Chowdhry’s work on Haryana links it to honour killings over inter-caste and same-gotra marriages.
- Everyday talk and intimacy: Don Zimmerman and Candace West (1975) found that men made almost all the interruptions in mixed-sex conversations. Their later idea of “doing gender” (1987) treats gender as something performed in each interaction, including the unequal sharing of emotional labour.
- Consent: Pierre Bourdieu’s symbolic violence (Masculine Domination, 1998) explains why the dominated accept these relations as natural. About 45% of women in NFHS-5 agreed that wife-beating is justified in some circumstances.
- Work and public spaces: sexual harassment, male “gatekeeping” and dismissal of women’s authority extend domestic hierarchy outward, which the POSH Act, 2013 seeks to curb.
Qualifications
These relations are contested and changing. Anthony Giddens’s “pure relationship” (The Transformation of Intimacy, 1992), self-choice marriages and dual-career couples are negotiating greater equality. The terms also vary by caste, class and region.
Conclusion
Patriarchy is not only a macro structure. It is lived and reproduced in intimate, face-to-face relationships, where it often looks like love, duty or protection. Real change therefore needs democratised family relations, alongside changes in law and the economy.