Feminist Perspective on Patriarchy: Its Impact on the Construction of Femininity and Masculinity

Abstract

The concept of patriarchy has traditionally been used to analyze women's oppression, subordination, and subjection in a social order where men are perceived as superior to women. Gender inequality has been the chief area of feminist concern and protest since the first movement of feminism. Subsequently, feminists demanded gender parity and resisted discrimination based on sex, class, caste, race, and sexual orientation. It surfaced that roles ascribed to men and women were an outcome of socialization that had been deeply internalized leading to socially accepted notions of femininity and masculinity. I will explore the concept of patriarchy and discuss how such a social template for men and women becomes an oppressive injunction, that is subscribed to for seeking acceptability and validation. Perspectives of sociologists, such as Max Weber, Sylvia Walby, Alan Johnson, and Anthony Giddens, will be incorporated to explain the concept of Patriarchy, along with the writings of feminists such as Simone De Beauvoir and Judith Butler.