Women in

Patriarchal Societies

AP WORLD HISTORY

Early Agricultural Societies

• Most were PATRIARCHAL : which means they were run by men and based on the assumption that men directed political, economic and cultural life.

• Family structure rested on men’s control of property.

Mesopotamia• Marriages were arranged for women by their

parents.

• The husband served as authority over his wife and children as he did over his slaves.

• Adultery by a wife = punishable by death….

• Adultery by a husband = far more tolerated.

Double Standard?

Mesopotamia, continued….

• Emphasis on the importance of women’s virginity at marriage.

• Imposing a veil on respectable women in public to emphasize their modesty.

• Mesopotamian Law (Hammurabic Codes) - large portion was given over female protections…but clearly emphasized limits and inferiority.

Conditions Varied in other Agricultural Societies….

• Egyptian civilization gave upper-class women more credit than Mesopotamia did…there were several queens.

• Jewish law traced descendents from mothers rather than fathers, though women were separated and inferior in worship.

• Confucianism in China had important implications for women, involving good treatment, but subservience to men.

Why was Patriarchal Societies

so pervasive?• As agriculture improved with better techniques,

women’s labor became less important than in hunting/gathering societies.

• This was more common in upper classes. • Inferior position of women was less marked in

peasant families where their work was essential.

• Essential for men to know who their heirs were (to pass along land)…when resulted in regulating women’s sexuality to assure faithfulness.

Indirect or informal Female Powers

• Women often wielded informal power by their emotional hold over husbands/sons.

• Confucian theorists argued that women must obey men…but men must treat them decently.

• Women also formed networks within large households…which indirectly affected society.

• Older women had power over daughters/ daughter-in-laws and servant women.

Conclusions

• Patriarchy was a commanding theme in agricultural societies.

• Laws and Culture regulated order.• Women’s options were severely constrained. • Girls were reared to accept this order…and

boys were conscious of their superiority. • When population excess threatened a family’s

well-being, these assumptions often determined that female infants be killed as a means of population control.

Pick One Question to Answer in your Journal…

• How do you think most women reared in a patriarchal society would react to their conditions?

• What might cause differences in women’s conditions in patriarchal societies, or form one society to another?

• Why were upper-class women often considered more inferior to men than lower-class women were?