Patriarchy

Form of social, political and economic organization built on the principle that men are the political and legal authority, creating and justifying a system of power relations and gender inequality. At its core is the father’s (or other men in the group’s) dominance over the women in his family and control over their sexuality. The system reserves leading roles for men in the public sphere, where they exercise power and control, and relegates women to the home and the role of childbearing. Patriarchal structures often intersect with multiple strands of oppression, which is why compound terms such as ‘capitalist patriarchy’ and ‘heteropatriarchy’ are often used.