The patriarchy is one of the key principles which the feminist ideology addresses. It is the idea that society is dominated by men and run in their interests. Although all strands of feminism agree that the male domination in society oppresses women, however they differ on the extent to which the patriarchy is the primary issue in society. While liberal feminists don’t even fully acknowledge the patriarchy, socialist and postmodern feminists believe that there are other more pervasive issues within society. Therefore, feminists on the whole do not agree that the patriarchy is the primary problem in society as all feminists’ view society from a different perspective, resulting in varying stances on the fundamental complications in society.

It is significant to mention that there is some basis for agreement throughout the strands of feminism. They all believe that the state, society and the economy are defined by systematic gender oppression and that the structure of society itself confirms the patriarchal domination of men. This basis for agreement is confirmed by Simone de Beauvoir, a traditional socialist feminist from the 20th century, who stated that “representation of the word: like the world itself, is the work of men: they describe it from their own point of view which they confuse with the absolute truth”. This is similar to radical feminist Kate Millet’s idea that “a sexual revolution begins with emancipation of women who are chief victims of the patriarchy”. Therefore, although the ideologies of these feminists differ, they both agree that the patriarchal society is clearly suited towards men and that it is something that women need to be freed from. This view is also shared by other socialist feminists as well as post-modern feminists, all arguing that the patriarchy is a key issue within society. However, this consensus is somewhat limited because all strands of feminism disagree over whether the patriarchy is the primary problem within society, with liberal feminists even denying its existence. Yet, most feminists have some criticism of the patriarchy, despite the cause for this criticism stemming from differing roots.

It is significant to address liberal feminists, as they assert that feminists do not agree that the patriarchy is the primary problem in society. Liberal feminists don’t even use the term ‘patriarchy’, and if they do, they are strictly referring to the public sphere of society, since a core part of their belief system is the fight for legal and political equality in society, ensuring that men and women have the same rights and entitlements in society. Liberal feminist Betty Friedan talks of this need for equality in society, highlighting the liberal feminist belief that the face of the patriarchy is therefore the underrepresentation of women in senior positions in politics, business and all other professions relating to public life in general. This is further emphasised by early liberal feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who believed that women should be entitled to the same rights and privileges as men on the grounds that they are both ‘human beings. She claimed that the ‘distinction of sex’ would become unimportant in political and societal life if women gained access to education and were regarded as rational creatures in their own right. However, these ideas are strongly criticised by other feminists, because while in society, women have a public role, taking up many high-ranking positions, liberal feminists support of the nuclear family is still upholding the framework of the patriarchy. Their focus on the public sphere of society is condemned by radical feminist as well as socialist feminists like Simone de Beauvoir who advocated for the destruction of patriarchal institutions, and like many feminists, she was highly critical of the traditional nuclear family and favoured the abolition of the family unit altogether. Therefore, the inclusion of liberal feminists within the overarching feminist ideology means that to a large extent feminists disagree that the patriarchy is the primary problem within society.

Another way in which feminists largely disagree that the patriarchy is the main problem in society is because they see the patriarchy is a product of capitalism, and that the emancipation of women can only be offered through a social revolution and the overthrow of capitalism. They argue, with the end to capitalism, patriarchy would also go, meaning that patriarchy is not the primary problem of society. Sheila Rowbotham has thus argued that the struggle for women’s liberation is essentially bound up with the struggle against capitalism. Socialist feminists also believe that the patriarchy can only be understood in the light of social and economic factors. For example, the traditional ‘bourgeois family’ is patriarchal and oppressive because men wish to ensure that their property will be passed on only to their sons. The ‘cult of femininity’ which developed from this repression which extols the attractions of romantic love, in reality is an organised hypocrisy designed to protect male privileges and property. Charlotte Perkins Gilman nevertheless argued that women’s subjugation could be overcome through the reform, rather than the abolition of marriage, this shows a difference within socialist feminists on the role of the family. This statement fundamentally disagrees with other socialist feminists such as Sheila Rowbotham who believed that the only way to destroy both capitalism and the patriarchy was a radical change in the ‘cultural conditioning’ of humanity regarding child-rearing, homes, laws and the workplace. This disagreement is further highlighted by Orthodox Marxists who believed that class politics took precedence over sexual politics. This suggests that class exploitation is a deeper and more significant process than sexual oppression, as well as that women’s emancipation will be a by-product of a social revolution in which capitalism is overthrown and replaced by socialism. Women seeking liberation should therefore recognise that the ‘class war’ important than the ‘sex war’. Such an analysis suggests that feminists should devote their energies to the labour movement rather than support a separate and divisive women’s movement. However, modern socialist feminists have found it increasingly difficult to accept the primacy of class politics over sexual politics. Socialism does not, in itself, end patriarchy. For modern socialist feminists, sexual oppression is every bit as important as class exploitation. Although liberal and socialist feminist ideas had been adapted to throw light on the position of women in society, but neither acknowledged that gender is the most fundamental of all social divisions.

Radical feminists however do believe that the patriarchy is the primary problem within society, with Kate Millet who described patriarchy is a “social constant” running through all structures within society. Radical feminists believe that the different roles of men and women have their origin in a process of ‘conditioning’, meaning that from a very early age boys and girls are encouraged to conform to very specific gender identities. This role largely takes place within the family, which Millet describes as ‘patriarchy’s chief institution’, highlighting the feminist idea of ‘the personal is political’. Millet proposed that patriarchy should be challenged through a process of ‘consciousness-raising’, one in which women realise that they are being oppressed in society. Therefore, radical feminists differ from other strands of feminism because they believe that sexual oppression is the most fundamental feature of society and that other forms of injustice e.g class exploitation, racial hatred and so on, are merely secondary. Radical feminists have therefore insisted that society be understood as ‘patriarchal’ to highlight the central role sex oppression and that it is systematic, institutionalised and pervasive. However, they are the only strand of feminism that believe that it is the fundamental problem within society.

However, for other radical feminists and post-modernists, differing from liberal and socialist feminists, the patriarchy is a system of politico-cultural oppression, whose origins lie in the structure of family, domestic and personal life. Female liberation thus requires a sexual revolution in which these structures are overthrown. Such a goal is based on the assumption that human nature is essentially androgynous. Post-modernists, and black feminists talk of multiple oppressions, with bell hooks discussing the need for intersectionality, which is contention that there is no single basis for women’s subordination and thus no single way to solve it. They challenge the tendency within conventional forms of feminism which largely ignore racial differences and suggest that women endure a common oppression by virtue of their sex. This is especially strong in the USA, and developed in the writings of theorists such as bell hooks, who portray sexism and racism as linked systems of oppression, and highlights the particular and complex range of gender, racial economic disadvantages that confront women of colour. Therefore, post-modern feminists disagree with other strands of feminism because they believe that other modes of oppression need to be addressed in order to come to terms with the sexual oppression of women, whilst other strands of feminism take no consideration towards intersectionality and only view feminism as a one-dimensional issue.

On balance, although feminists agree that the patriarchy or women’s oppression in society exists, they largely disagree on how this should be tackled. Only radical feminists believe that women’s oppression is the main issue that should be addressed, with socialist and post-modern feminists believing that capitalism and racism should have an equal priority. Liberal feminists do not even believe that the patriarchy needs to be fully addressed, only focussing on the public sphere of society. Therefore, the disunity of the feminist doctrine highlights that for most feminists, the patriarchy is not the primary problem within society.

Maya Davies