“Down with the patriarchy” is such a cliche it feels almost stupid to write the words. But in truth, there’s more there than pop sloganeering. The patriarchy is a matrix of bad ideas and the system it creates, positing the primacy of one half of the human race at the expense of the other. It works both overtly and covertly to create a world in which womens’ voices, women’s rights, and women’s power are consistently diminished.
Feminine power derives from a different place in consciousness than does masculine power. They are equal, and equally important. Yet throughout our society there’s a suspicion of any woman who didn’t derive her authority from a man or a male-dominated institution. If you’ve come up the ladder their way, you have a chance at sharing power. But only if. In a patriarchal system - including the many women who have chosen consciously or unconsciously to mimic it - there’s a refusal to give credence to the idea that there are simply other ladders than the ones they see. The only power the patriarchy recognizes is its own. The power of a mother, the power of a philosopher, the power of an artist - basically anything right-brain - means nothing to a system that has separated the head from the heart. And that’s exactly what the patriarchy does.
This isn’t about women being in control instead of men being in control; it’s about the human heart in all of us being in control. The Australian feminist Germaine Greer said famously, ‘The opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy, but fraternity.” Yet that can’t be achieved if women’s voices, and women’s power, are constantly diminished, minimized, or mocked. It also can’t happen if women continue to conspire with the patriarchy - either by aligning with it, or by choosing to be silent when another woman is challenging its values and being punished for the effort. Enough already. We’re letting some of humanity’s best ideas fall to the wayside, and some of our worst ideas take center stage.
This isn’t about men versus women. It’s about a system that’s failed us, and which we need to let go of now. Can you imagine what public policy would look like in the United States if Congress were made up entirely of women with children under five years old? A little more for education and healthcare, you think? A little more care for the earth, safety of the food supply, cleaner water and air? Maybe a little less bomb throwing and a little more peace building…?
Children aren’t old enough to vote, so they’re not a constituency. They’re not old enough to work, so they have no financial leverage. Protecting their rights must come from enlightened adults, and women must lead the charge. Not just the cry; the charge. Our government is not set up to protect women or children - in fact, we’re sliding backwards these days - and that will not change unless we change it. At best, the patriarchy ignores women. At worst, it actually hates us.
Dismantling the patriarchy will take more than an awakening among men; it will also take an awakening among women. It will take all our courage to change the course of human history, but change it we must if our grandchildren are to thrive. It will take more than women being in leadership positions, or any positions of power. It will take women being willing to use our leadership, and to use our power, to introduce humanitarian values into situations where they are now dangerously absent.
