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Wives Earning More Than Husbands Linked To Rising Mental Health Diagnoses In Couples
(wellbeingnews.co.uk)
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2024-11-11
Well, I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. Patriarchy is a pretty dominant social structure across many different cultures, not just European. There are exceptions, yes, but it seems far more common than it should be if that was purely coincidental. Based on my reading, patriarchy is strongly associated with the rise of agriculture and with patrilocal marriage and may not have existed prior to those institutions, but early human history has a very scant level of evidence remaining, unfortunately.
However, the relatively low sexual dimorphism in humans does suggest that early human societies were fairly egalitarian with respect to the sexes.
Isn't there the theory that agriculture basically pushed patriarchy because of several factors?
Just a quick glance into this article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230525-how-did-patriarchy-actually-begin
gives some insights which do not sound too wrong. For example the article mentions the theory that the rise in property included the need for defense against others and you are better at this with more people. The article also theorizes that "social elites emerged as some people built up more property than others, driving men to want to make sure their wealth would pass onto their legitimate children".
Very interesting article. I might need to check out the author's book, it sounds right up my alley.
Another interesting fact is that as we've seen these agrarian and patrilocal traditions weaken under capitalism, we suddenly see a strong push for gender equality after thousands of years of consistent oppression. This also fits the pattern, although the number of dramatic changes to society in recent centuries make it difficult to pinpoint exact causes.
But I think the key to this is a certain amount of wealth and not capitalism itself. Gender equality was a bit better under communism for example, which would fit the theory of inheritance mentioned in the article.
Man, blaming "patriarchy" bugs the hell out of me, because I'm from northern European backgrounds, and we've been perfectly fine with female leaders basically forever. Our societies are an equal partnership between men and women, each doing what they're best suited for, but neither dominating the relationship. I know there are fucked up cultures out there which are run by men dominating women, but can we please stop trying to erase the fact that it IS actually possible to get along?