Role of Women in

Patriarchal Societies

AP WORLD HISTORY

What role did gender playWith respects to male/femaleRelationships?

Early Agricultural Societies

• Most were PATRIARCHAL : which means they were run by men and based on the assumption that men directed political, economic and cultural life.

• Family structure rested on men’s control of property. Done through laws, veiling, denial of access to institutions

Mesopotamia• Marriages were arranged for women by their

parents.

• The husband served as authority over his wife and children as he did over his slaves.

• Adultery by a wife = punishable by death….

• Adultery by a husband = far more tolerated.

Double Standard?

Mesopotamia, continued….

• Emphasis on the importance of women’s virginity at marriage.

• Imposing a veil on respectable women in public to emphasize their modesty.

• Mesopotamian Law (Hammurabic Codes) - large portion was given over female protections…but clearly emphasized limits and inferiority.

Conditions Varied in other Agricultural Societies….

• Egyptian civilization gave upper-class women more credit than Mesopotamia did…there were several queens.

• Jewish law traced descendants from mothers rather than fathers, though women were separated and inferior in worship.

• The role of family (particularly mother/wife) in Pre-Confucian China had important implications for women, involving good treatment, but subservience to men.

Why was Patriarchal Societies

so pervasive?• As agriculture improved with better techniques, women’s labor became less

important than in hunting/gathering societies.• This was more common in upper classes. • Inferior position of women was less marked in peasant families where their

work was essential. • Essential for men to know who their heirs were (to pass along land)…when

resulted in regulating women’s sexuality to assure faithfulness.

Indirect or informal Female Powers

• Women often wielded informal power by their emotional hold over husbands/sons. • Confucian theorists argued that women must obey men…but men must treat them decently. • Women also formed networks within large households…which indirectly affected society.• Older women had power over daughters/ daughter-in-laws and servant women. • In exceptional cases, women could serve as regent(in place of your heir to throne) and weild

exceptional power (Egypt’s Hatshepsut and Neffertiti were Pharoahs)

Women in the Americas

• Both the Olmec and Chavin were firmly patriarchal.• Traditional roles as mothers and wives served their domestic

capacity.• They also contributed to the family through agriculture and weaving.

Conclusions• Patriarchy was a commanding theme in agricultural societies. • Laws and Culture regulated order.• Women’s options were severely constrained. • Girls were reared to accept this order…and boys were conscious of their

superiority. • When population excess threatened a family’s well-being, these

assumptions often determined that female infants be killed as a means of population control.