Unlearning Patriarchy

Degradation of the Goddess

Prior to patriarchy, a lot of people worshipped female deities. In her book, The Creation of Patriarchy, Gerda Lerner writes that archaeological evidence indicates that early societies revered the function of mothers, who are observably the sources of life and fertility. This is important: because religion is one of the main repositories and purveyors of…
Use the law

The law can wreck our lives or kill us, especially in countries where the law is used by men to protect their power and assets. Let’s take a quick look at the latest legislative change in Afghanistan. In August 2024, the “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” added to the…
Unionize

Unions are good for women. Not great, but good. On average, unionization raises women’s wages by 12.9% compared to non-union female workers (Schmitt & Woo, 2013). Women who are union members earn 4.7% higher hourly wages on average than non unionized women (Economic Policy Institute, (2022). Unionized women have better access to health insurance (74%…
It’s about the money, honey

Patriarchy has always been about a few people getting richer, paying less than they should (or nothing) for the work we do. Always. Let’s start with what is going on today. Estimate the value of the services provided by a typical wife, excluding the money she makes if she works, every year, if, every year,…
Rest is resistance

Resistance does not have to be hard. Maybe your life is hard enough without taking on more, right? So take on less. Much, much less. Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, wrote a book called Rest is Resistance: a manifesto where she argues that doing nothing is incredibly powerful. Since capitalism and patriarchy (and White…
Man the hunter?

In the autumn of 2023, several scientific periodicals published articles debunking the myth that, throughout evolution, men did all the hunting and fighting while women tended the hearth and children. According to the author of that article, Sophie Gray, that entire scenario is a recent construction. It was at a symposium in 1966 that the…
The timeline of patriarchy

Nobody knows exactly when the subjugation of women in Western culture started because the historical record is neither clear nor reliable (especially considering that it was written by men) but many scholars have theories. Gerda Lerner wrote that, by the time that Western civilization’s foundational idea systems were created (Greek philosophy and the Hebrew mythology…
Ladies first: how men learned to enslave

Gerda Lerner argued that slavery played a crucial role in the development of patriarchy. Men first enslaved conquered women and children, and became good at controlling them through forced reproduction and violence. Lerner proposes that enslaved women and children might have been the very first private property. A powerful division was created among women through…
The natural woman

In the grand theatre of patriarchy, women are of nature and the earth. Men are above all that. This clever maneuver allows for a tidy categorization: men as the supposed bastions of culture, reason, spiritual goodness and progress, while women are characterized as the earthy, emotional, and instinctual creatures created to serve the superior male.…