The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Patriarchal

Patriarchal: A term used by feminist critics to describe the structuring of society on the basis of “father-rule,” or paternal authority, and the concomitant marginalization or subordination of women. Feminist critics critique patriarchal society as dominated by men promoting masculine “values” that, in turn, maintain men in positions of power — in short, as a system that perpetuates male dominance, whether in the family or in government, in the arts or in religion, and relegates women to the domestic sphere. Having been defined as Other, in binary opposition to the “superior” male and his masculine characteristics from ancient times to the present day, women have traditionally been conditioned to accept the patriarchal ideology that devalues them and all things labeled “feminine.”