living in a patriarchal society 

What Is A Patriarchal Society?  

 
Simply put a patriarchal society consists of men that make all the decisions in their household, community, and workplace. 

 

For example, the father is the head of the family, has control over women and children in the family unit, and the wife takes her husband's surname.  

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The eldest man in the family such as, the grandfather can also be in control of decisions for women and children in extended families.  

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I’ve touched on this topic a little bit here. 

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Where Did It Originate From?  
 

There are many theories about how the patriarchy system originated but the common ideas are that women are inferior to men or that women are made to have children and get busy nurturing them so that’s the role that they should stick to.  

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Let’s assume that the patriarchy was needed once upon a time for whatever reason.  

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But who does it benefit now?  

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Men have been abusing their “power” for generations, when they should have never been entitled to this level of domination in the first place.  

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There is no biological or natural reason to justify the system. 

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It’s the way of thinking.  

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Women are not less than men. Men are not less than women.  

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We are all capable of whatever we put our mind to.  

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We are equal.  

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I don’t think the traditional “roles” that men and women play in many households such as the housewife and the provider is necessarily an awful thing.  

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In fact, it seems like it could be unproblematic if the couple is capable of working as a team and have the same values and principles.  

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But it becomes a problem when both genders feel like these are the roles that they must play.  

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Many women have been left choice less but not only that, they have also been taught to take all sorts of abuse from men and never demand respect because they are the providers, and well, because they’re men.  

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A lot of men take advantage of their wives and control all finances, purchases, shopping decisions, what their wife can and cannot do, everything! 

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Divorce is also looked down upon.  

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All human rights are violated.  

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The worst situation is when women believe that these are the cards that they’ve been dealt and it's how things are supposed to. 

 

But they’re not to blame either.

 

This way of thinking is something that’s been passed on to them.  

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Only leading to teaching their own kids of these ways.

  

Girls that are born into a patriarchal family are also expected to get married and have kids.  

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It doesn’t matter how talented, smart, skilled or qualified those girls become – their parents only have one expectation from them and nothing else is enough.  

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Dreams, goals, nothing is discussed. 

 

Surprisingly, even relationships and raising kids aren’t a topic in some of these households even though that’s the expectation.

 

Doesn’t that sound strange?  

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Strict patriarchal parents don’t even realise that they might be pushing their good kids to become exactly what they don’t want them to be because of the lack of communication and trust.  

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It's so important to know what everyone's desires are and how they would like their life to turn out.  

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More so, they should be given that freedom.