It is no secret that women’s representation in many fields has increased since the early-to-middle 20th century. Moreover, female-oriented laws to protect women’s rights have also increased. However, it seems as if the patriarchal attitudes of society still persist. Women are still underrepresented in the STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) fields. Moreover, many developed countries also continue to have fewer females in key areas of employment and education.
More recently, the Covid-19 pandemic also seems to have affected women more in functional areas. Given the persistent attempts at helping women gain equality, why are we still lagging behind?
In this article, I will address this question through a psychosocial analysis of the patriarchy.
First, nevertheless, it is necessary to define what patriarchy is.
What is Patriarchy?
Patriarchy is an overarching concept of male dominance over women as it presents in society.
As summarized by Strid and Hearn (2022), patriarchy can be understood as a catch all term.
I’ll put forward these definitions briefly.
Patriarchy was used to talk about male dominance and the ways that men control women. To define effects on women’s mental concept of family systems where men trade women and fathers’ symbolic power in those systems. Patriarchy also defined male power over women and how this affects capitalism. It further denotes a sexual hierarchy shown by women’s roles as mothers, housekeepers, and shoppers in the family. Moreover, patriarchy is also seen as a historically specific form of love power.
Patriarchy as a Psychological Construct
On a psychological level, patriarchy exists in the beliefs of an individual.
This can be exhibited through androcentric language, even by women. These beliefs can also be seen in the similarity of attitudes and values of gender in multiple generations. Some researchers also theorize that because of their subscription to social norms, women might feel pressured to choose gender roles over personal independence.
All these explanations indicate that there is some alignment between women’s self conceptualization and patriarchy.
I’ll explore this alignment in the following section.
Psychological Rationale for Persistence of Patriarchy
Patriarchal elements are difficult to get rid of. These elements can be found in even the most gender neutral countries.
For example, Sweden gets 83.9 out of 100 points on the Gender Equality Index, making it the most equal country in the EU. But, in 2022, women made an average of 90.1% of what men made each month. This indicates a significant gender pay gap.
This pay gap can be explained by women’s preferences regarding work and life in general. However, it can also be explained partially by possible discrimination in the processes of workplace as well.
Thus, it all boils down to psychological elements that boil down to an individual level. This is because preferences are usually formed at an individual level. They can be informed by societal biases – but individual biases themselves could further maintain societal ones.
In particular, there are two strands of psychological rationale that explain patriarchy and its persistence. These are of
- Essentialist Models of Patriarchy (based on the theory of evolution)
- Constructionist Models of Patriarchy (based on social constructivism)
To study what maintains patriarchy, I will first refer to evolutionary psychology.
Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary psychologists reason that there are differences in how much parents invested in their children. This caused sexual selection forces that led to psychological differences between men and women.
As women cared more about their children (for example, by carrying them and feeding them), they became pickier about possible partners than men, who cared less about their children. As a result, men in the past had to fight with each other to get sexual access to women.
Over time, men’s natural tendencies changed to support aggressiveness, competition, and taking risks. It became common for ancestral women to choose partners who could provide for them and their children. Some evolutionary scientists say that sexual selection in humans also happened because women competed with other women to find marriage partners and men chose long-term partners based on their ability to have children and be reliable.
Thus, one rationale for the persistence of patriarchy is of personal preferences for sexual partners. Research appears to be mildly conflicted on this matter.
For instance, research reveals that women tend to prefer men who have several dominance-related traits. These include assertiveness and confidence – among many other characteristics. But it is also suggested that a simple dominant–nondominant dimension may not be very useful when predicting women’s mate preferences.
Nevertheless, without the analysis of the social image of gender, it is impossible to understand the cognitive construct of patriarchy.
Psychological Constructionism
According to psychological constructionism, the way people talk about gender in a society comes from how they relate to the words they use to explain it.
Language has social biases that shape how people think about male and female, like using male names as general. These biases create and support gender inequality. These constructionists think that there aren’t many trait-like differences between men and women that are the same in all situations. They have seen psychology studies as backing this view.
From this point of view, differences in biology between men and women don’t lead to any general trends of psychological differences between the sexes.
It would stand to reason then, that women who exhibit dominant characteristics tend to not conform to a patriarchy.
Research has indicated that women who retain their surname following marriage show a proclivity towards their career. They are also more assertive.
Combining the Two Perspectives
Both evolutionary and constructionist psychology appear to explain parts of what maintains patriarchy. But they fail to provide the entire picture.
There are biological differences among the sexes and these differences do affect one’s view of the world. On the other hand, the way these differences affect a person is based on that person’s interpretations of the social setting and social feedback.
However, just focusing on explaining patriarchal elements through social constructionism cannot explain the gender differences in personal preferences that still persist on a societal level.
After all, there is still a pay gap in Nordic states. Plus, there are major differences in preference for STEMM. One side could argue that these elements continue to exist because of a patriarchal culture. The other side could argue that differences in biology form a basis for such patterns.
I would argue that biological differences and social perceptions and interpretations of these differences are the major maintaining factor for patriarchy.
This can be observed in the phenomenon of gendered beliefs about mathematical ability predicting men’s persistence in careers.
My explanation is this:
Men on average are oriented towards work and they have fewer barriers – biologically and socially – than women to pursue their career. Thus, on average, they occupy more positions of authority. As we move towards a more egalitarian society, women will be more represented in the workforce.
However, social values along with biological aspects of procreation could be a major hindering factor.
While proper representation certainly is a positive development, free choice is equally important. Perhaps, it can be concluded that free choice in itself could also maintain many patriarchal norms.
