Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power, predominate in the roles of political

leadership, moral authority, special privilege and control of the property. Men are also centre and
authoritative figure in the domain of the family. Patriarchy has been one of the dominant features of the
world particularly of Indian society. Roles in family or society are rigidly divided on the basis of gender in
a patriarchy. These divisions are not only limited to scientific division such as child bearing by women etc
but extend to all forms of life, without any justification.

Social inequality is a universal phenomenon in all societies. In every society, some people have a greater
share of valued resources – money, property, education, health, and power – than others.

Patriarchy being the most significant structure of social inequality:

Right from birth women face inequality. Most of the parents don’t even want their girl child to be born.
This was evidenced in 2018-19 Economic Survey’s “Son meta preference”. After birth, boy child gets
better education, nutrition, clothing compare to girl child. Elder girls have to quit their education to take
care of younger siblings. Even if they manage to continue their education, their performance is affected
as they need to help their mothers in household chores. This manifests into a boy becoming a better
individual than a girl in terms of possessing knowledge, wealth etc.

Despite bringing much legislation such as Hindu Succession Act etc, property transfer to girl child is
minuscule. Employers show discrimination against women candidates fearing their performance might
reduce during pregnancy/ due to household responsibilities. Increasing crime against women makes
parents of girl child skeptical in sending her to a better educational institution/better employment
opportunity far off from their native place. Even if women manage to cross all the barriers and secure a
good employment, their financial autonomy is still almost negligible.

Yet, Patriarchy is the least noticed structure of Inequality:

Most of us, irrespective of our economic, social, cultural status continue to accept patriarchy. Wife
beating is accepted as a cultural norm by more than 50% of women. Women taking up jobs, women
being main bread winner of family, women working in late hours all are still considered a taboo.

No society can advance with half of its population facing social inequality. The change has to come from
within the society – instead of forced by government through legislations. Moral overhauling is a must in
schools starting from very young age. Special treatment must be given to women to balance out decade
long discrimination faced by them. This is utmost essential to address the issue of social inequality – not
only in India but across the world.

“Patriarchy is the least noticed yet the most significant structure of social inequality”
The patriarchy is a universal phenomenon. There has been much debate about whether it is a cultural,
societal or intellectual invention or a natural situation that was unavoidable. The manifestations of
patriarchy are evident in the societies or communities arranged and structured on patriarchal lines; the
system where the father or eldest male leads the family and the origin of a person in terms of family is
reckoned through the male line, usually, the background; and the intricate arrangement where men
keep possession of the power and women are largely denied access to it. Patriarchy manifests itself in
the structural frame of both society and government.

Sexism which is based on preconceived opinion reflecting unjust behaviour, forming a hackneyed idea,
and prejudicial treatment on the discriminatory grounds classically against women, on the basis of
gender, proves a patriarchal social order to be right and reasonable and provides a long-standing
rationale for it. Thinkers such as Plato, Hippocrates, and Aristotle expressed their views on women
subject to subjugation. Their thoughts on bringing women under domination and control linking it to the
divine demand let the generations to deliberately assume women to be imperfect having undesirable
features and being lacking vis-à-vis men. Unfortunately, this notion began disempowering women.

The objective reality of gender inequalities shows the existence of a division of labour and organic
image. This division of society into strata based on different unequal statuses of men and women in
terms of wealth, power, and privilege paves the way for gender stratification highlighting the economic
and social disparities between the two genders. Different norms, customs, traditions, and institutions
encourage this hierarchical and asymmetrical division. Men used to make decisions about the world’s
resources and the resources of households. There has been general acceptance for it into the
community intended not to touch the sustainable course of familial relationships.

The evolution of patriarchy has remained a very dynamic historical process where agriculture and land
ownership made it strongly rootable, before this, some of the nomadic hunter-gatherer societies were
egalitarian, and some cultures were based on the mother as the head of the family or household,
however, as the different tribes started declaring war on each other, dissimilar vulnerabilities engraved
male domination. Women’s procreative powers also attracted varied objective and subjective
perceptions, though, initially, there had been the general consensus on this matter throughout the
duration of the development of human civilisation capturing the essence of social evolution; later this
entrenched pattern of male domination in society advanced its own interests and stopped women
executing a will, having a property, giving or registering a vote, freely reaching a decision on safe
abortion, and so on. These appeared as social inequalities, though there were many, but they remained
conspicuous and drew criticism.

Culture representing particular ideas, customs, and social behaviour is a dominant reason for gender
inequalities, but ‘class’ has pushed gender inequalities towards attaining the significant structure of
social inequality without making us take much cognizance of patriarchy. The culture contributed to
ordering society into sets based on perceived social status, which was further strengthened by class. This
resulted in two different roles and relative statuses based on gender within the same family. In this case,
since the distribution remained unequal, it affected the economic status of the family because of which
women experienced constraints at both social and economic levels and got used to deprivation which
became standard, usual and typical societal offering.

In the early stages of human togetherness, the earning potential of women remained dormant. They
were dependent on men for their financial securities. They lost hold on resources and institutions
necessary for self-subsistence. In fact, today, in developed countries, women’s poverty rates are
considerably higher than the poverty rates for men. Since time immemorial, patriarchy has not allowed
social, cultural and economic homogeneity to exist in any form. This includes the time in the past which
had been so long ago that women and men both have no knowledge or memory of it, and even women,
in general, have stopped blaming patriarchy for the social inequality and the gender stratification.

Patriarchy disempowered women. When the great potential is sidelined and excluded from decision-
making, the family can’t be upgraded from its existing social status, class, and circle. When a woman
doesn’t evolve, it puts a direct and severe impact on the upbringing of children. They do not become
focused individuals. They receive a poor education, undergo substance abuse, and face unemployment
and marginalisation. Hence, they become the subject of social inequality. There are many lives which are
described as rags to riches stories. This means that there is not always the unequal distribution of
opportunities between different groups in society, if you have it in you, you can have what you want.
Empowered women are very strong reason for increasing the number of such stories. We hardly assign
the responsibility for serious deprivation to patriarchy, rather we do not distinguish it this way.

With the advent of feminism, women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes were strongly
advocated. The French and American revolutions in the late 18th century made people, for the first
time, pay attention to the issue of rights for women. The different waves of feminism took up issues
related to political change, unity and sisterhood, and class and race to ensure women political,
economic, and social equality. A lot has been changed since then, instead of earmarking patriarchy, the
focus of responsible and sensible families is on respecting varied women’s involvements, individualities,
acquaintance and influence, and facilitating women empowerment so that they can grow to realise their
full rights, and consequently reduce social inequalities.

Unless the state of being equal in status, rights and opportunities are experienced by each and every
member of the family, social inequality would keep reshaping racial, gender and wealth inequalities.
When a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit do not experience any
male domination and control over the other gender and consider both genders equally capable, valued
and deserving respect, the family breaks the circle of belonging to social groups categorized as
advantaged and disadvantaged, on the contrary, the family simply lives what it means to be together
and deliver promises to togetherness.

Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power, predominate in the roles of political
leadership, moral authority, special privilege and control of the property. They also hold power in the
domain of the family, as fatherly figures.

Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that the male lineage inherits the property and
title. Here, the female alternative is a matriarchy. Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the
social, legal, political, and economic organization of a range of different cultures. The analysis of
patriarchy and its effects is a major topic within the social sciences and humanities.
Nowadays, patriarchy is a well-known term. It possesses everyday resonance, when used in casual
conversation or a descriptive sense, whether, in English or any of the several languages spoken in the
Indian sub-continent. At its simplest, the term means ‘the absolute rule of the father or the eldest male
member over his family’.

The Patriarchal Nature Of The Indian Society

Indian debates on socialism and patriarchy are complicated by a significant shift in the analysis. The
subject of research and debates was not just capitalism and its relationship to patriarchy. Rather,
patriarchy came to be discussed in term of the modes of production and reproduction, specific to Indian
realities. These were understood regarding the family and household; kinship and caste; culture and
religion, and the Indian state, whose policies have a dynamic beaming on all other social structures.
Indian discussion addressed and added their concerns to the more substantial feminist arguments.

Indian feminist analysis and arguments linked the family and the economy to demonstrate, how the
economic power of men and their domination of production was crucially linked to, and determined by,
the organization of the family and the household. The household thus emerged as an important
constituent of both production and patriarchy.

The sphere of reproduction was understood in terms of a sex-gender system, which identified with
concrete social structures and relationships, in this case, kinship networks. Along with the household,
kin networks were seen as central to both the exercise of male power in the familial and social contexts,
as well as a women’s status, or the lack of it, at home and outside.

Both production and reproduction were seen as involving exploitations of human labour on the one
hand, and of female reproductive capacity, on the other. The caste system was seen as central to both
forms of exploitation and as linking them in explicit ways, and it has been argued that distinctive caste
patriarchies exist in India.

Debates about capitalism and women’s sub ordinance often became debates on developments and the
role of the modern states. This led to the theorizing of the state as both patriarchal and as a potential
challenger of patriarchy.
Various studies are available which is documenting the same. Their invisibility, position of women in the
social, political and economic system, is clearly more an outcome of the ideology governing public policy
relating to women. Hence, women are noticeably absent from the discussions of development theory
too.

Women In Indian Society

India is one of the countries where the female population is less than the proportion of the male
population. According to UNICEF India’s Report on Child Sex Ratio, the birth of female’s children is
declining steadily. Figures from 1991 showed that the sex ratio was 947 girls for 1,000 boys. Since 1991,
80% of all districts in India had recorded a declining sex ratio, with the state of Punjab being the worst in
leading the statistics. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have
recorded more than a 50 point decline in the child sex ratio in the same period. Kerala is the only one in
India where the overall sex ratio is constantly in favourable to women. However, the numbers today,
have started to improve once again.

The Status Of Women In India

Women form about half of the population of the country, but their situation has been grim. For
centuries, they have been deliberately denied the opportunities for growth in the name of religion and
socio-cultural practices. At the social-political plain, women suffered from the denial of freedom even in
their homes, repression and unnatural indoctrination, an unequal and inferior status, rigid caste
hierarchy and even untouchability. Religious tradition and social institutions have a deep bearing on the
role and status of women.

Protest movements within the Hindu fold, like Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism, Veera Shaivism and
Sikhism contributed to some improvement in the status of women. Particularly regarding religious
activities. However, they continued to regard women primarily as mothers and wives, inferior to the
men in the society. From the middle of 19th century, reform movements like Brahma Samaj, Arya Samaj,
Ramakrishna Mission, etc. championed the cause of women, but nothing concrete could be achieved. It
is also significant that upliftment of women was an important item in the agenda of MK Gandhi.

Exploitation Of Women

A woman in Indian society has been a victim of humiliation, torture and exploitation. There are many
episodes of rape, murder, dowry, burning, wife beating and discrimination in society. Men predominate
the Indian society, hence women are a victim of male domination in the respective sphere of life;
especially in economic life, over decision making on resources, on the utilization of her earnings and her
body. Hence, a woman’s life lies between pleasures at one end and danger at another end.

The Vulnerability Of Women

The condition of women is more miserable in rural India with respect to various socio-economic aspects:

Poverty

Poverty is one of the important characteristics of India, and nearly 45% of rural people are below
poverty line. Most of them are just surviving with their day-to-day earnings. If we take the International
Poverty Line (1994) into consideration, in India, there were 47% of the population at below $1 a day
category and 87.5% at below $2 a day category. Better healthcare and higher educational opportunities
are far reaching dreams for their children. She (girl child) is treated as a ‘silent lamb’ born to suffer all
evils in male-dominated societies.

Violence

Culture and tradition have bound the Indian society since ancient times. The patriarchal system and the
gender stereotypes in the family and society have always shown a preference for the male child. Sons
are regarded as a means of social security and women remained under male domination.

Due to her subordinated position, she has suffered fears of discrimination, exploitation and subjugation.
She became the victim of several social evils like child marriage, sati, polygamy, purdah system, female
infanticide, forced pregnancy, rape etc.

In such incidents, many times, the mother-in-law of the woman also has a role to play. This
discrimination and violence against women affect the sex ratio in India also. The main causes of violence
are unequal power relations, gender discrimination, patriarchy and economic dependence of women, no
participation in the decision-making process etc.

Economic Exploitation

In the world, women and girls together, carry two-thirds of the burden of the world’s work, yet receive
only a tenth of world’s income. The condition of women in India is also miserable in every field of social
life. They are paid half of the money their male counterparts earn for the same job. In India, a
predominantly agricultural country, women do more than half of the total agricultural work. But their
work is not valued. On an average, a woman worked 15 to 16 hours a day unpaid at home and
underpaid outside.

Educational Deprivation

In India, the literacy rate of women is much lower than men because boys receive more schooling than
girls. India is one of the 43 countries in the world where the male literacy rate is at least 15% higher than
female rates. Educational deprivation is intimately associated with poverty.

However, in India, modest improvement is gradually coming up in the educational level of women. After
the independence, many steps have been taken to improve the lots women. The present govt’s program
“Beti Bachao, Beti Padao” is also remarkable step by the government to fulfilment the need and
aspiration of the girl child. Many laws have also been passed. A National Commission for Women was
set up to act as a watchdog on the women issues in 1992. Many programs in the areas of education,
health, and employment have been initiated for development of women, rural as well as urban.

The review of the status of women in India tells the story of a fall in the status of women to an
abysmally low position from a relatively high-status and notability of the Vedic times. The fall in status
has led to a socio-economic and religious-cultural deprivation of women.

Of course, there are certain initiatives in the country, especially after the independence towards raising
the status of women. But still, there are many miles to go to reach out the goal of gender equality.