Women and Authority in Patriarchal Societies: History & Strategies

Introduction

In the contemporary world, the cultural and literary spheres acknowledge female interests and activities. Women have overtly exerted their rights by demanding their due status in society and have come to be accepted as important societal members. But the scenario was vastly different a hundred years ago. Women belonged at home, with general society believing that raising children and managing domestic affairs sufficed as their emotional fulfillment. Between 1850 and 1900, societies were chiefly patriarchal, and women had to fight to enjoy equal social status. They were governed completely by a male-fashioned society and were expected to embody the era's feminine ideal (Balanza). This paper addresses female authority within patriarchal societies, with particular emphasis on the many restrictions women faced when it came to exerting power, and the effective strategies they applied to resist those restrictions.

Women with Authority

Balanza emphatically asserts that throughout the course of history, women remained perpetual victims of societal ideals, depicted as mentally and physically the "weaker" of the two sexes and subservient to men in every way. Society imposed specific norms and principles for women to abide by. They had to adhere to societal standards and, consequently, enjoyed limited opportunities. Their societal significance was curtailed. The ideal twentieth-century woman was required to meet standards and maintain roles that may seem disagreeable and insulting today, but that era was vastly different from the present. The period from 1750 to 1800 saw men and women living in distinct spheres. The basis for this ideology was the definition of innate male and female characteristics. Women's supposed suitability to domestic life — and its becoming their "sphere" — derived from the belief that they were physically weaker but morally stronger than men. Female societal contribution was thus restricted and governed entirely by male authority (Balanza).

Additionally, Balanza indicates that women were chiefly expected to marry and participate in their spouse's business. Female participation in the political, economic, and legal domains was prohibited; these were considered solely male spheres. In short, women were barred from the public domain. Consequently, they received inferior education and limited outside knowledge, since the external world was considered a man's domain. As men felt threatened by female attainment of knowledge and expertise, patriarchal society ensured women never grew to be on par with men intellectually and fiercely opposed women's college attendance. Domestic life represented the cultural manifestation of female existence. Social visits and activities, fashion, household furnishings, religious engagement, charities, and etiquette all outlined a world wherein women could exert authority and demonstrate their "soft" skills (Balanza).

Prior to the 1900s, the only legal identity held by women was that of their spouses. Owing to their perceived physical weakness, they were barred from labor-intensive workplaces. While their male counterparts had various career avenues open to them, women were confined to home-related paid work. They managed the household, performing domestic tasks and routine errands, raising children, and overseeing cooks, maids, and other servants. They were even, on occasion, forbidden to leave the house without their husband's approval. They lacked any appreciable economic or social status. Society accepted matrimony and motherhood as their ideal occupations. Besides maintaining proper comportment and propriety, they had to possess a "lady's" qualities and superior household management skills (Balanza).

Context in Different Societies

History World International claims that a majority of agrarian societies lowered female potential and status, at least relative to contemporary Western standards as well as implied hunter-gatherer standards. As agrarian societies developed and grew more intricately organized, female status dropped from its original level. Households came to be typically established on a patriarchal basis, and the male head of the family determined basic conditions and made important decisions. The rest of the household, particularly its female members, were required to be humbly subservient to this patriarchal domination. Typical patriarchy conditions first arose in Mesopotamian society, in which marriage entailed an official, arranged agreement between the families of the bride and groom. The husband held power over his family the way he controlled his servants. However, initial Sumerians may have accorded women more freedom than their descendants. Sumerian religion believed female sexuality held immense power. Initial Sumerian laws afforded women key rights, meaning men could not treat them as outright "property." Nevertheless, Sumerian law meted out death sentences to married adulteresses while treating adultery on the husband's part far more leniently — a typical patriarchal double standard. Post-Sumerian Mesopotamian civilizations began emphasizing female virginity at the time of marriage and mandated the veiling of respectable women in public to underscore their modesty. These changes indicated a steady narrowing of female freedom and status. Throughout, a considerable portion of Mesopotamian law — including the Code of Hammurabi — was devoted to instructions concerning women, ensuring some fundamental protections while explicitly stressing their inferiority and restrictions (History World International).

Patriarchal conditions differed between agrarian societies as well. The Egyptians accorded elite women more credit; the society saw several powerful women on its throne. Akhenaten's wife Nefertiti apparently played a central role in the era's religious conflicts. Some agrarian civilizations accorded women significance by tracing lineage through mothers rather than fathers, as in Jewish societies. Still, these societies considered women inferior — Jews, for instance, demanded separate male and female worship. Thus, despite the importance of variety, it often functioned within a primarily patriarchal context (History World International).

Patriarchies generally infiltrated and constrained female authority. With agricultural improvements using superior methods, female labor, although still essential, decreased in significance compared to earlier periods. This was especially true in elite and urban settings where men often assumed political control, productive occupations, or craft-making. Elite female inferiority was generally more pronounced than among peasant women, whose labor remained crucial. More broadly, agrarian civilizations were founded on property-related concepts, beginning with land organization. Property relationships formed the basis of early law codes. This scenario apparently required male certainty of paternity, demanding that men monopolize their wives' sexual activities. This explains the legal focus on female sexual fidelity and the treatment of wives as husbands' property. This framework in turn allowed conceptions of women as inferior and partially ornamental. Prosperous societies tended to demonstrate their prosperity by further relegating women, as was observed clearly in China and, to some extent, in India and Western Europe. Briefly, patriarchy responded to agrarian civilizations' property and economic conditions and tended to deepen over time (History World International).

On a more positive note, some women found relief through religious functions in several societies, offering them a chance to operate independently of family structures. Patriarchal laws also outlined a few female rights, at least theoretically safeguarding married women from extreme abuse. For instance, the Sumerian code allowed both men and women to divorce under particular conditions if their spouses failed to carry out their obligations. Furthermore, women in patriarchies wielded informal, indirect, covert emotional control over their sons and husbands. Strong women could harness this power to attain a more dominant role in society. Women also formed networks, at least within large families. Older women forcefully directed family activities by commanding the obedience of their unmarried daughters and daughters-in-law (History World International).

From Moghadam's research, kinship-ordered communities regarded childbearing as a chief female labor undertaking. However, akin to capitalism — in which workers do not own the products of their labor — patriarchal societies regarded female products (such as children) as the husband's family's property. From this standpoint, some have argued that patriarchal societies are not straightforwardly oppressive toward women: women bore the serious responsibility of childbirth and child-rearing, considered a divine and prophetic undertaking, as it creates, guides, and educates. Hence, women were, according to this view, excused from economic duties so that they could peacefully carry out this role. Males were thus required to support them economically to ensure no economic vacuum within women's lives (Moghadam, 139–141).

Conclusion

Patriarchy was clearly a dominant theme in a majority of agrarian societies from early on. The harsh reality is that women's biological role — childbirth and child-rearing — was regarded as their chief and sole occupation. The enforcement of patriarchy, via culture and law, aided these civilizations in regulating their citizens and achieving social order. Although patriarchies mostly did not reduce women to a purely servile status, they came close. Women's options were strictly limited. While girls grew up to accept and internalize patriarchal conditions, boys were fully conscious of their individuality and presumed superiority (History World International).

Works Cited

Balanza, Pamela. "The Role of Women in the 19th and 20th Centuries." Aglaun. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.

Bobby, Susan. "Resisting Patriarchy — A Study of the Women in The God of Small Things." Language in India 12.10 (2012).

History World International. "Women in Patriarchal Societies." 1992. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.

Moghadam, Valentine M. "Patriarchy in Transition: Women and the Changing Family in the Middle East." Journal of Comparative Family Studies (2004): 137–162.

Said-Foqahaa, Nader, and Marwa Maziad. "Arab Women: Duality of Deprivation in Decision-Making under Patriarchal Authority." Hawwa 9.1 (2011): 234–272.