Patriarchy

Topic: Equality and Social Justice · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 3 "Gender, Religion and Caste"; Class 11, Ch 3 "Equality"

Meaning

Patriarchy is a social, economic and cultural system that values men more than women and gives men power over women. It defends this by saying that "natural" differences between the sexes justify the gap in power.

It matters because feminism starts by challenging this defence. Feminists argue that most inequality between women and men is made by society, not by nature. That means it is not necessary, and society can change it.

Explanation

How patriarchy works: sex vs gender

• Its core claim: biology decides social roles.
• Patriarchy says men and women differ by nature.

• So, it argues, they should have unequal positions and power.

• The sex–gender distinction is the main answer to this claim:

• Sex is biology.

• Gender is the role society gives to each sex.

• Example: only women can bear children. That does not mean only women should raise them.

• Child-rearing is a gender role, not a fact of biology.

• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949): "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". She meant that society shapes what it means to be a woman.

The public/private divide and the double burden

• Public/private divide: patriarchy splits life into two parts.
• The public sphere covers work, politics and decision-making. It is given to men.

• The private sphere covers home and care. It is given to women.

• Double burden: in practice, the split does not hold.

• Most women also work outside the home.
• Yet they still do almost all the housework and care work.

• The result is two shifts of work, one paid and one unpaid.

• Women still have little say in public decisions.

• "The personal is political": this is the feminist answer to the divide.
• Housework, power inside the family and violence at home are all shaped by power and law.
• So they are political matters, not just private ones.

How thinkers challenged patriarchy

Phase	Thinkers / ideas	Main demand
Early liberal feminism	Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792); J.S. Mill and Harriet Taylor, The Subjection of Women (1869)	Reason and equal rights for women: education, property, the vote
First wave (19th–early 20th century)	Suffrage movements (movements for the right to vote)	The vote, university degrees, the right to work
Second wave (1960s–70s)	De Beauvoir's ideas; "the personal is political"	Equality at work, reproductive rights, gender roles in the family
Intersectional turn	Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989)	Recognising disadvantages that overlap

• Indian pioneers:
• Savitribai Phule started girls' schools in Pune. She worked with Jyotirao Phule against both caste and gender oppression.
• Pandita Ramabai worked for widows and for women's education.
• Tarabai Shinde wrote Stri Purush Tulana ("A Comparison of Women and Men", 1882). It attacked the double standards society set for women and men.

Limits: patriarchy works together with caste and class

• Intersectionality means a person's identities, such as caste, gender and class, overlap. Together they create a distinct disadvantage. This is more than one disadvantage added to another.

• Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term in 1989.

• Indian example: Dalit women face caste and patriarchy at the same time.

• Gopal Guru's essay "Dalit Women Talk Differently" (1995) argued that two groups left Dalit women's voices out: feminism led by upper-caste women, and Dalit politics led by men.

In the Constitution and practice

Constitutional base

• Article 14 gives equality before the law. Article 15(1) bars the state from discriminating on the ground of sex.
• Article 15(3) lets the state make special provisions for women and children. This accepts that treating people equally can mean treating them differently.
• Article 39(d) is a Directive Principle of State Policy (DPSP). DPSPs are goals the state should follow, but courts cannot enforce them. It calls for equal pay for equal work for men and women.
• 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023:
• It reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women.
• It takes effect after the delimitation (redrawing of constituency boundaries) that follows the next census.

Laws against patriarchy at work

• Equal pay:
• The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 put Art. 39(d) into law.
• The Code on Wages, 2019 has merged it with three other laws: the Payment of Wages Act 1936, the Minimum Wages Act 1948 and the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 [3].
• All four Labour Codes took effect on 21 November 2025 [5].

• Section 3 of the Code on Wages, 2019 bans discrimination on the basis of gender, including transgender identity. This covers recruitment, wages and conditions of work for the same or similar work [3].

• Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017:

• Paid maternity leave went up to 26 weeks.
• Establishments with 50 or more employees must provide a crèche (a day-care facility for workers' young children).
• These provisions are now part of the Code on Social Security, 2020.

Courts and the armed forces

• Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya (2020):
• The Supreme Court ruled that women officers in the Army must get permanent commission. This means a full career, not a fixed short-service term.

• It rejected arguments based on stereotypes about women's physical ability. This is a direct rejection of the patriarchal "natural difference" defence.

• National Defence Academy (NDA):

• It opened to women in 2021 after a Supreme Court order.
• The first batch of women cadets joined in August 2022 with the 148th course [6].
• 126 women cadets joined between the 148th and 153rd courses [6].

Evidence: patriarchy in daily life today

• Time Use Survey (TUS) 2024 (by MoSPI, with fieldwork from January to December 2024):
• 83.1% of women and 26.4% of men did unpaid domestic services for household members on a normal day [2].
• Among people aged 15–59 who did such work, women spent about 305 minutes a day and men about 86 minutes [2].
• Women's time fell from about 315 minutes (TUS 2019) to 305 minutes. This suggests a slight shift from unpaid to paid work [2].

• TUS matters because it counts work that the national accounts leave out, such as unpaid housework and care [2].

• Female labour force participation rate (LFPR) is the share of women who work or are looking for work. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) measures it.

• Female LFPR was 40.0% in calendar year 2025. Rural female LFPR was 45.9% [4].
• Urban female LFPR was 25.8% in 2024, up from 25.5% in 2023 [4].
• The low urban figure shows how strong the domestic role for women still is in cities.

Don't confuse with

• Sex vs gender: sex is biology. Gender is the role society gives to each sex. Patriarchy treats gender roles as if they were biology.
• Feminism: feminism is the idea that women and men should have equal rights. It is the challenge to patriarchy, not another name for it.
• Intersectionality: patriarchy is one system of power, based on gender. Intersectionality shows how gender combines with caste and class to create a distinct disadvantage, as with Dalit women.
• Formal equality vs differential treatment: formal equality means giving women the same rights as men, such as the vote, degrees and jobs. Undoing patriarchy may also need special provisions such as maternity leave and crèches. This does not break the equality principle.

Prelims Hooks

• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949), wrote "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". This is the root of the sex–gender distinction.
• J.S. Mill wrote The Subjection of Women (1869) with Harriet Taylor. Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman came out in 1792. Tarabai Shinde wrote Stri Purush Tulana in 1882.
• Kimberlé Crenshaw coined intersectionality in 1989. Gopal Guru's "Dalit Women Talk Differently" came out in 1995.
• Art. 39(d), equal pay for equal work, is a DPSP, not a Fundamental Right.
• Trap: Section 3 of the Code on Wages, 2019 bans gender discrimination including transgender identity, not only between men and women [3]. All four Labour Codes took effect on 21 November 2025 [5].
• TUS 2024: 83.1% of women vs 26.4% of men did unpaid domestic services. Women aged 15–59 who did such work spent about 305 minutes a day, and men about 86 [2].

Mains Points

• Unpaid care work and low female LFPR:
• Women do far more unpaid work than men (305 vs 86 minutes a day in TUS 2024) [2]. This helps explain why urban female LFPR is only 25.8% [4].

• Reform options: paternity and shared parental leave, public crèches and care infrastructure, and counting care work in the national accounts.

• Formal equality vs substantive equality:

• Maternity leave, crèches, Article 15(3) and the 106th Amendment show that undoing patriarchy needs differential treatment, not just identical rules.

• Intersectionality adds a design problem. Single-axis policy can miss Dalit, Adivasi and poor rural women. One debate is that the 106th Amendment has no OBC sub-quota inside the women's quota.

• "The personal is political":

• The state now acts on domestic violence, workplace harassment and care. This shows the patriarchal public/private divide breaking down.
• The trade-off is privacy and family autonomy on one side, and protection of women on the other.

Related concepts

• Feminism
• Sex-gender distinction
• Double burden
• Intersectionality

Read more

• Feminism: patriarchy and gender equality