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Patriarchy is a social system in which males hold the primary power. In the domain of the family, fathers or father figures hold the authority over women and children. Patriarchy is characterized by male identification which says that men are stronger. This also has a lot of gender stereotypes attached to it. The home is the nursery of patriarchy. Women do play a role in upholding patriarchy. They are the ones who socialize their children into accepting norms of patriarchy that otherwise are so impossible to accept. It is often said that “women are women’s worst enemy”. It is very painful and unfair. A woman has been made to become a woman’s worst enemy as she is the one laying down the horrible laws someone made centuries ago. She is like a hunting dog of patriarchy as she is the one who is asked to enforce these laws. Starting from not going to the temple in periods to making her learn all the household chores, women unknowingly take part in patriarchy. Women are made to favour their male children over the female ones. In some places, a woman gets subjected to humiliation by her mother-in-law if she gives birth to a female child. Unnecessary statements are often heard in a family gathering like “her grandmother cried when she was born” or “this family has only girls”. These things are very subtly put in although been said as a joke. These things are very subtly put in although been said as a joke. Women are patriarchal as men by holding the same values and biases.
The patriarchal bargain of sustained “submissiveness and propriety” made throughout her life produces rewards in the form of authority, affection, and approval. In some societies, women are afforded rights and freedoms in the interest of the quality of the sexes.