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?