Patriarchy Throughout World History

Patriarchy, a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it, is one of the most significant conflicts in world history (Oxford Dictionary). Patriarchy began to rise in early pastoral times when agriculture had recently been invented, and the status of women slowly declined as women stayed at home to take care of children and men took over the agricultural field of work. Men began to assume economic power slowly over time, transforming into the majority of leadership roles in many empires. Throughout world history, Patriarchy has had an extremely large effect all over world history, appearing in almost every single dominant empire as part of their culture. Today, patriarchy is still a significant
Patriarchy appears in religions everywhere such as Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. In Islamic societies all over the world, women must wear a hijab, a niqab, or a burqa. The Quran states that men and women are spiritually equal, but it does not express the topic of social equality. Patriarchy began to occur in Islam because as the religion spread across the globe, the present cultures in each society that became muslim kept certain aspects of their native culture, adding the aspect of Patriarchy to the Islamic community. Men and Women are usually separated during prayer or service in Judaism. In Christianity, women only make up 10% of leadership, pastoral, or ministerial positions in Protestant places all over the country (Luttrell). Women are even banned from leadership in many other religious
Social standards are pushed upon women everywhere, such as shaving their legs, wearing makeup, and having a “perfect” body. Typically men work and supply the family with money, while the women stay at home, working in the house and taking care of children. Women only earn 79 cents to every dollar that men make, hold 18.3% of seats in congress, hold 4.2% percent of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies, there have been no female presidents out of the 43 that were males in the past 240 years, and only 4.6% of Supreme court Judges have ever been women (Luttrell). No matter the religion that is followed, Patriarchy is a basic factor in American Culture. The idea of Patriarchy has been practiced for over 10000 years, and the system of ideas that have been in human culture for so long will not go away. Dr. Gerda Lerner, a 65 year old professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, states that “Patriarchy has gone through many forms… patriarchy is 'an institutionalized pattern of male dominance in society'' (Lerner). The pattern of patriarchy has been reoccurring through history in many different shapes and forms, and it will continue to so do in