I recently finished an essay on power relationships within the family and I was shocked, but not surprised to find that men are still the very dominate figure within politics, business and law. What follows is an edited version of my essay:
Zillah Eisenstein, a political theorist and feminist states in her book “The Radical Future of Liberal Feminisim” (1981) that women live in an oppressed society, which she names as a ‘Patriarchal society’ (Patriarchy can literally be translated to mean rule by the father). She further argues that “Patriarchy as a political structure seeks to control and subjugate women so that their possibilities for making choices….are curtailed”.
A prominent radical feminist Carol Hanisch argues that “political” refers to all relationships that are involved with power not just state or government relationships; that personal problems are not those of individuals, but that they are political issues because of oppression and inequality on a larger state scale and that these issues are rooted in domestic life
Now if we understand that politics is everywhere; wherever there is power to be fought over, the relevant actors will provide these competing relations. Then the feminists argument that the public sphere of life (which encompasses Law, Business and Government) is majoratively run by men and women have on the whole been isolated to the private sphere of domesticity, upbringing of children and family is not going to be a shock. What this has done is it has exlcuded the woman from the public sphere and generally left them with very little impact within politics.
Kate Millett (a second wave feminist) states that the concept of patriarchy is in fact a framework that has been built and sustained by the male dominated state allowing gender inequalities to remain largely unchecked. If we look at leaders of states and rulers in history, what we see is that they generally make laws that make it very difficult to overthrow them and makes it easier to oppress others.
With the control of the male in both spheres of public and private, the role of the woman is restricted; the male running the state and business is the one that makes rules and decisions, which has to be said will be from a male perspective. This male dominated sphere will mainly decide things which will be self serving and protective of his roles and rights, leaving the female with very little say on the larger issues such as the rights of women. What this results in is in fact a static, stagnant, status quo, with the female struggling to ascend from the homemaker but having very little impact on the state and politics as a whole.
It could be said that the power relationships between the male and female within the family are a microcosm of the state. It has been seen that the role of the male and his dominance over the female is replicated in the family and that the state is globally patriarchal across most western democracies, by this very nature all states policies and decisions that are made will be of a patriarchal slant, reinforcing the oppression of the male over the female across all spheres, including the family.
With this evidence we can look with a wider perspective over our current society and see that it is in fact a male dominated sphere (Law, Business and Government) with females having little say over the ruling of our country. However, with more women becoming the main wage earners and with more women taking up positions of power within the public sphere including business and politics they are having a significant impact on how the age old paradigm is beginning to shift.
The 21st Century is starting to see male patriarchy being addressed and the whole power relationship becoming a more equal playing field and with more influence over the state and the family the power relationships between the male and female is likely to change irrevocably for the best.
Male orientated states have been creating poverty, conflict, disasters and wars for millennia. With women gaining more power and influence over law, business, politics and society as whole can we look forward to a less testosterone driven world? Maybe even a society which values morality, fairness and equality, rather than greed and selfishness? I hope so and I will welcome the day with open arms.