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Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term patriarchy is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in feminist theory to describe a broader social structure in which men as a group dominate society. [1] [2] [3]
From a historical point of view, the term patriarchy refers to the father as the power holder inside family hierarchy, and thereby, women become subordinate to the power of men. Patriarchy is a social system in which men have predominant power and are dominant and have privilege in roles such as: political, economical, societal, and social roles.
Gender essentialism is a theory which attributes distinct, intrinsic qualities to women and men. [1] [2] Based in essentialism, it holds that there are certain universal, innate, biologically (or psychologically) based features of gender that are at the root of many of the group differences observed in the behavior of men and women.
Gender role is not the same thing as gender identity, which refers to the internal sense of one's own gender, whether or not it aligns with categories offered by societal norms. The point at which these internalized gender identities become externalized into a set of expectations is the genesis of a gender role.
Gender is used as a means of describing the distinction between the biological sex and socialized aspects of femininity and masculinity. [9] According to West and Zimmerman, is not a personal trait; it is "an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements, and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society."
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations, and needs equally, also regardless of gender. [1]
Cisnormativity contributes to patriarchy by providing a rigid division of people into genders and gender roles. [11] Cisnormativity often appears together with heteronormativity. [12] [13] According to Judith Butler, the dominant view of gender assumes a "causal continuity among sex, gender, and desire". [14]
Normative gender roles can be reinforced outside of the household, adding power to these established ideas about gender. An analysis of children's books in the twenty-first century, by Janice McCabe, suggests that this particular avenue of children's media symbolically annihilates females, representing them about half as often as that of males.