Patriarchy and Christianity
Patriarchy literally means "rule of fathers”, from the Greek πατριάρχης (patriarkhēs), "father" or "chief of a race, patriarch”. Historically,
the term patriarchy was used to refer to autocratic rule by the male head of a family.
However, in modern times, it more generally refers to social systems in which
power is primarily held by adult men.
Patriarchy is a social
system in which the male acts as the primary authority figure central to social
organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and
property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails
female subordination. Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning
that property and title are inherited by the male lineage. The female equivalent
is matriarchy.
Historically, patriarchy
has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, and economic
organization of a range of different cultures. Patriarchy also has a strong
influence on modern civilization, although many cultures have moved towards a
more egalitarian (classless) social system over the past century.
Patriarchy is based on a
system of power relations which are hierarchical and unequal where men control
women’s production, reproduction and sexuality. It imposes masculinity and femininity
character stereotypes in society which strengthen the unfair power relations
between men and women. The nature of control and subjugation of women varies
from one society to the other as it differs due to the differences in class,
caste, religion, region, ethnicity and the socio-cultural practices. Patriarchy
within a particular caste or class also differs in terms of their religious and
regional variations. Similarly subordination of women in developed countries is
different from what it is in developing countries. While subordination of women
may differ in terms of its nature, certain characteristics such as control over
women’s sexuality and her reproductive power cuts across class, caste,
ethnicity, religions and regions and is common to all patriarchies. This
control has developed historically and is institutionalized and legitimized by
several ideologies, social practices and institutions such as family, religion,
caste, education, media, law, state and society.
Patriarchy – a societal construction
Patriarchal societies propagate the
ideology of motherhood which restrict women’s mobility and burdens them with
the responsibilities to nurture and rear children. The biological factor to
bear children is linked to the social position of women’s responsibilities of
motherhood: nurturing, educating and raising children by devoting themselves to
family. The traditionalist view accepts patriarchy as biologically determined
and as the biological functions of men and women are different, the social roles
and tasks assigned for women are also different. Sigmund Freud views that for
women ‘anatomy is destiny’ and it is women’s biology which primarily determine
their psychology and hence their abilities and roles. The traditional notion of
‘public - private division’ which located politics in the public sphere and
family and personal relationships in private sphere as non-political, believed
that sexual inequality is natural and not political. While the political sphere
was preserved for men the private sphere was reserved for women as housewives
and mothers who were excluded from politics. The dismantling of these theories
enables us to acknowledge that patriarchy is man-made and has developed
historically by the socio-economic and political processes in society.
Structures of Patriarchy
The first lessons of patriarchy are
learnt in the family where the head of the family is a man/ father. Man is
considered the head of the family and controls women’s sexuality, labour or
production, reproduction and mobility. In a patriarchal family the birth of
male child is preferred to that of a female. The former is considered as the
inheritor of the family over the latter.
Family
plays an important role in creating a hierarchical system as it not only
mirrors the order in the state and educates its children but also creates and
constantly reinforces that order. Family
is therefore important for socializing the next generation in patriarchal
values. The boys learn to be dominating and aggressive and girls learn to be
caring, loving and submissive. These stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are
not only social constructs but also have been internalized by both men and
women. While the pressure to earn and look after the family is more on the man,
the women are supposed to do the menial jobs and take care of their children
and even other members of the family. It is because of these gender stereotypes
that women are at a disadvantage and are vulnerable to violence and other kinds
of discriminations and injustices. Systemic deprivation and violence against
women: rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, female foeticide, infanticide, witch
killing, sati, dowry deaths, wife-beating, high level of female illiteracy, malnutrition,
undernourishment and continued sense of insecurity keeps women bound to home,
economically exploited, socially suppressed and politically passive.
Patriarchal constructions of
knowledge perpetuate patriarchal ideology and this is reflected in educational
institutions, knowledge system and media which reinforce male dominance. More
subtle expressions of patriarchy was through symbolism giving messages of
inferiority of women through legends highlighting the self-sacrificing, modest,
pure image of women and through ritual practice which emphasized the dominant
role of women as a faithful wife and devout mother.
The mechanism of control is operated
through three different levels. The first device was when patriarchy was
established as an ideology and women had internalized through stridharma
to
live up to the ideal notion of womanhood constructed by the ideologues of the
society. The second device was laws, customs and rituals prescribed by the brahminical
social code which reinforced the ideological control over women through the
idealization of chastity and wife fidelity as highest duty of women. The third was the state itself which
supported the patriarchal control over women and thus patriarchy could be
established firmly not as an ideology but as an actuality. Therefore gender relations are
organized within the structural frame work of family, religion, class, caste,
community, tribe and state.
Patriarchy and religion
Patriarchal constructions of social
practices are legitimized by religion and religious institution as most
religious practices regard male
authority as superior and the laws and norms regarding family, marriage,
divorce and inheritance are linked to patriarchal control over property biased
against women. A person’s legal identity with regard to marriage, divorce and
inheritance are determined by his or her religion, which laid down duties for
men and women and their relationship. Most religions endorse patriarchal values
and all major religions have been interpreted and controlled by men of upper
caste and class. The imposition of parda, restrictions on leaving the domestic
space, separation between public and private are all gender specific and men
are not subject to similar constraints. Thus the mobility of women is
controlled. They have no right to decide whether they want to be mothers, when
they want to be, the number of children they want to have, whether they can use
contraception or terminate a pregnancy and so on and so forth. Male dominated
institutions like church and state also lay down rules regarding women’s reproductive
capacity.
Caste and gender are closely related
and the sexuality of women is directly linked to the question of purity of
race. The caste system and caste endogamy retained control over the labour and
sexuality of women. Caste not only determines social division of labour but
also sexual division of labour. Ideologically concepts of caste purity of women
to maintain patrilineal succession justified subordination of women. The
establishment of private property and the need to have caste purity required
subordination of women and strict control over their mobility and sexuality.
Female sexuality was channeled into legitimate motherhood within a controlled
structure of reproduction to ensure patrilineal succession.
Women in Hebrew Culture
This Christian teaching was not only
fundamental in the Ancient Greek and Roman world, but also in the Hebrew
culture prevalent at that time. The Rabbinic Oral Law (now recorded in the
Talmud and Midrash) not only barred women from speaking in public and reading
the Law (Torah), but women were also forbidden from testifying in court. As one
Rabbinic teaching put it: “It is shameful” to hear a woman’s voice in public
(Berakhoth 24A). Another Rabbinic teaching asserted: “Let the words of the Law
(Torah) be burned rather than be committed to a woman…If a man teaches his
daughter the Law, it is as though he taught her lechery” (Sotah 3.4)
For this reason synagogue worship was meant to
consist only of male participants. Women, if present, were to be passive listeners,
separated from the men by a “michetza” (partition). These women were never to
raise their voices. Only the men were to do the singing or chanting. It was
only by the late 18 th Century in Reformed synagogues that Jewish women were
permitted to sing.
Patriarchal Christianity and
Liberation
The Christian church from the
beginning was understood as a community of liberation from slavery and
oppression, drawing on the ancient theme of Israel as an exodus community from
slavery in Egypt and a journey to enter into the Promised Land. Baptism was at
first embraced as the sacrament of conversion and transformation through which
one entered this community of liberation that overcame all social hierarchies
of ethnicity, class and gender, a baptism into the Christ-nature in whom there
is no more Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female. But this vision of a
community of discipleship of equals was quickly spiritualized and the concrete
reference to changing social hierarchies denied.
Soon the patriarchal voice was
reinstated in the household codes: Wives obey your husbands, children your
parents, slaves your masters, a reiterated demand for obedience of subjects to
their lords in New Testament texts that itself witnesses to the fact that many
Christians understood baptism and entry into the church as really overcoming
these relationships of domination socially, as well as spiritually.
Bible verses that are often used to
justify patriarchy, the male superiority and female submission are a
misinterpreted view of the male role. Eve (Gen chs 2-3), is often misinterpreted,
particularly by Christians, to be disobedient to patriarchal God and man, and
to many a generalized symbol of womanhood that must be submissive and subject
to discipline, somehow ignore the responsibility of Adam in the scene.
Patriarchy, Women and Jesus
There is no recorded instance where
Jesus disgraces, belittles, reproaches, or categorizes a woman. They interpret
the recorded treatment and attitude Jesus showed to women as evidence that the
Founder of Christianity treated women with great dignity and respect.
Until the latter part of the
twentieth century, only the names of very few women who contributed to the
formation of Christianity in its earliest years were widely known: Mary, the
mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene, disciple of Jesus and the first witness to the
resurrection; and Mary and Martha, the sisters who offered him hospitality in
Bethany.
Paul and patriarchy
Many feminists have accused notions
such as a male God, male prophets, and the man-centered stories in the Bible of
contributing to a patriarchy. Though many women disciples and servants are
recorded in the Pauline epistles, there have been occasions in which women have
been degraded and forced into a second-class status. For example, women were
told to keep silent in the churches for "it is a shame for a woman to
speak in the church".
Greek civilization accorded an
extremely low status to women, not allowing them to have any meaningful social
life in public, or in the presence of men, even in private. Women had little or
no social value. As Sophocles wrote: “Silence is an adornment to women”;
Euripides asserted: “Silence and delicacy are most beautiful in women and
remaining quiet within the house”. Aristotle declared: “Silence gives grace to
women”. Homer wrote: “Speech shall be for men”. Euripides wrote: “Women,
specious curse to man”. Aeschylus wrote: “Evil of mind is they and cunning of
purpose, with impure hearts”. Aristophanes wrote: “For women are a shameless
set, the vilest of creatures going”. Homer wrote: “One cannot trust women!”
Paul puts women minor to men in
Eph.5:22-24 may be looked into as an affirmation of Platonic teaching of
women-“A woman's virtue, if you wish to know about that, may also
be easily described: her duty is to order her house, and keep what is indoors,
and obey her husband." Men who abuse often use Ephesians
5:22, taken out of context, to justify their behavior, but the passage (v.
21-33) refers to the mutual submission of husband and wife out of love for
Christ. Husbands should love their wives as they love their own body, as Christ
loves the Church. Following
the pattern of Christ means that patterns of domination and submission are
being transformed in the mutuality of love, faithful care and sharing of
burdens. ‘Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ’ (Ephesians
5.21).
A Legacy of Liberty - an abstract
By the Lord Jesus granting women a
previously unknown respect and status He not only broke with the anti-female
culture of His era, but He set a high standard for His followers to emulate. Because
of the teachings and actions of our Lord Jesus Christ over the centuries
Christianity has progressively achieved for women greater respect, dignity,
honor and protection. The actions and teachings of Jesus
raised the status of women to new heights, to the consternation and dismay of
both His friends and enemies. By word and deed Christ went against the ancient
accepted practices that stereotyped women as socially, intellectually and
spiritually inferior. It is to Christianity that we owe marriage as a mutual
partnership, the rejection of polygamy, and the promotion of monogamy and
marital faithfulness as the cultural ideal- must also be remembered. In
granting women respect, dignity and protection, Christianity broke with the
prevalent anti-female prejudices of the Ancient world, of pagan cultures and
Eastern religions. All the freedoms and advantages which women enjoy today are
as a result of the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and the progressive
work through the centuries – of the Church, though it desires discussions.
However, if present anti-Christian trends continue one could see a return to
the previous pagan abuses of women. Those advocating pornography, sexual
permissiveness, homosexual “marriages”, legalized prostitution, lowered age of
consent and the decriminalization of adultery are not offering us progress but
only a return to pre-Christian paganisms.
Conclusion
Rejection of patriarchy as the order
of creation for society, also obviously means rejecting it as the appropriate
order for the church. If the church in its essential nature is a community of
liberation from patriarchy then it should most particularly witness to an
alternative pattern of relationship between its members based on a discipleship
of equals and mutual empowerment. It can witness to an alternative relationship
of humans to each other and to the rest of creation in the larger society only
if it witnesses to such alternative relations in its own basic processes of
life, and ministry in its sacraments, educational work, administration and
mission to society. A church which claims to be the sacrament of liberation for
society while it representing the worse patterns of oppression internally is compounds
sinful distortion with hypocrisy and is simply unbelievable.
