The ‘Declining Significance’ or the ‘Changing Forms’ of Patriarchy?

Abstract

The concept of patriarchy may be attributed to a number of interpretations that involve different notions such as gender inequality, and a certain degree of systematicity that suggests how the various facets of gender relations may be in a way related. Although the issue of the significance of gender relations has increasingly being recognized by several scholars, and although such data is constantly changing, the data is still believed to be far from complete. Since making use of already existing concepts to interpret such changes proves to fall short, there is a need to adapt, modify, and create more concepts for appropriately addressing such issues on the macro-level. This chapter analyzes whether the incidences of patriarchy have been on a decline or are merely undergoing certain changes in its form.

Structural accommodations of patriarchy: Women and workplace gender segregation in Qatar

“…This gender order encourages women's high fertility (Fargues, ). It also favours women's confinement to domestic spaces (Fargues, ) and their active exclusion from public life (Walby, ), both of which represent a cultural ideal whose actual fulfilment depends on class, caste and ethnicity (Kandiyoti, ). Older women choose their sons’ brides, suppress conjugal love to the greatest extent possible (Brink, ; Olmsted, ) and try to manipulate their sons’ affections to ensure their support in old age (Kandiyoti, ).…”

“…Older women choose their sons’ brides, suppress conjugal love to the greatest extent possible (Brink, ; Olmsted, ) and try to manipulate their sons’ affections to ensure their support in old age (Kandiyoti, ). Echoing Walby (), Joseph () contends that Middle Eastern patriarchy is not limited to the household. She argues that economic patriarchy, political patriarchy and religious patriarchy are crucial macro‐social facets of this system (Joseph, ).…”

“…With time, education may come to be seen as useful for women's employment, and the gender gap in education may decline and in some cases reverse. Although it facilitates family nucleation under certain conditions (Brink, ; Moghadam, ), women's employment does not eliminate their dependence on men, for women often are concentrated in feminized occupations and remain locked into a gendered division of labour in which they remain responsible for housework and childcare (Walby, ). As companionate marriages come to be valued in some settings, and as young people gain independence from their elders through education and employment, they become more likely to choose their own spouses (Brink, ; Olmsted, ).…”

« Faites la prévention, mais pas l’amour ! » : des regards féministes sur la recherche et l’intervention en éducation sexuelle

“…Le patriarcat constitue donc un système qui gouverne les rapports sociaux de sexe impliqués dans les diverses sphères de vie, qu'elles soient économique, politique, culturelle, familiale ou sexuelle (Walby 1996). Pour une analyse fouillée du patriarcat, voir l'étude classique de Kate Millett (1971) et les travaux de Sylvia Walby (1990,1996) Une critique fondamentale qu'il est possible d'adresser à plusieurs interventions d'éducation sexuelle est qu'elles véhiculent souvent une représentation essentialiste de la sexualité.…”

“…En effet, on vise dans le programme l'intégration personnelle des aspects physiques, affectifs et comportementaux de la sexualité, ses aspects sociaux et politiques plus larges étant peu abordés. Or, comme l'ont déjà démontré plusieurs chercheuses féministes (Guillaumin 1992 ;Millett 1971 ;Walby 1996), la sexualité est une affaire politique, et cela, même dans l'intimité de la chambre à coucher. En outre, alors que les premières versions de ce curriculum avaient pour objet une prise de conscience sociale et politique de phénomènes 8.…”