Gender, Sex, and Patriarchy
1. Sex is usually used to mean biological sexual differences like reproductive organs; gender is usually used in contrast to mean aspects associated with being male or female that are created by society and culture, like the idea that pink is a feminine color or that women are naturally more intuitive than men.
2. Patriarchy, is literally, rule by the father. It most often refers to the political power and authority of males in a society, or simply the cultural and social domination of women by men. Patriarchy can also refer to the power of fathers within families. A society is considered patriarchal when men establish or inherit a social order where they dominate positions of power and authority. In early history, many Western thinkers believed that male dominance was the natural or God-given order of society. That belief began to be challenged after the 18th century, particularly with the advent of the women’s rights movement. The women’s rights movement promoted the political, social, and economic equality of women. But in the 20th century, with the rise of sentiment against feminism and the growth of religious fundamentalism, there has been a resurgence in some parts of the world of the belief that patriarchy is the natural order of society, including in the West. For example, after a new fundamentalist Muslim regime took over in Iran in 1979, women were segregated from men at social functions, barred from becoming judges or senior religious leaders, forbidden to leave the country without the permission of their husbands and required to wear the chador, a long black cloth that covers the head and body. Beginning in the 1960s, feminist thinkers began to question why sexual inequality persisted even after women had won the right to vote and had achieved legal equity. They also debated whether or not patriarchy is universal to all societies throughout history; many feminist science fiction writers have explored this question by imagining societies with very different relations between the sexes.