book review: the creation of patriarchy by gerda lerner

14 Feb 2022

The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner

What are the main ideas?

• the creation of patriarchy as a system is historical. meaning that it has a beginning in time and implying that it can have an ending. this differs from ahistorical systems like gravity which we cannot meaningfully trace to a beginning.
• patriarchy differs from other systems of oppression/domination/subordination in that unlike most of those systems, it’s subordinated group has always been at least half (and sometimes more) of the population!
• patriarchy as a historic creation took almost 2500 years to complete, beginning with the commodification of women’s reproductive and sexual capacities and ending with the male hegemony of civilization-scale symbol systems.
• “The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth.”

these next ideas are the main propositions as described by the author in the introduction but paraphrased by me (unless quoted obvi):

• the appropriation and commodification of women’s sexual and productive capacity lies at the root the creation of private property.
• “the old state formations were organized in the form of patriarchy; thus from its inception the state had an essential interest in the maintenance of the patriarchy family.”
• men learned how to institutionalize dominance over others via the early domination of women within their own groups. this was codified through slavery (which first happened through enslaving the women of other groups because the men were perceived to be too dangerous and so were therefore killed).
• “women’s sexual subordination was institutionalized in the earliest written codes of law and the power of the state was not initially but soon enough the enforcement apparatus.
• “Class for men was and is based on their relationship to the means of production… for women, class is mediated through their sexual ties to a man who then gives access to material resources.”
• strangely, long after the sexual and economic subordination of women to men, they were still playing “active and respected roles in mediating between humans and gods as… metaphysical female power, especially the power to give life, is worshipped by men and women in the form of powerful goddesses long after women are subordinated to men in most aspects of their lives on earth.”
• the process of removing powerful goddesses and replacing them with dominant male gods occurs in most near east societies following the implemntation of “strong and imperialistic” kingships. gradually, fertility shifts from being held by solely goddesses to being held via a mating of male king with a goddess and eventually to being an act of male-god creation with his wife.
• “The emergence of hebrew monotheism takes the form of an attack on the widespread cults of the various fertility goddesses.” the book of genesis is the widest known source location the power of ability to create things and life via an all-power male god. here is where “female sexuality other than for procreative purposes becomes associated with sin and evil.”
• the abrahamic covenants, by virtue of their being created between a man and god, assume the subordination of women. “Their only access to God and the holy community is in their function as mothers.”
• it is this covenantal symoblic devluation of women alongside aristotle’s philosophical influence of women being incomplete men that solidified the foundations of western civilizations patriarchal foundations. it is here that the “subordination of women comes to be seen as “natural,” hence it becomes invisible.

If I implemented one idea from this book right now, which one would it be?

remember that patriarchy is a historical process; it had a beginning and can therefore have an end.

How would I describe the book to a friend?

this is an anthropological study of the 2500 year history of the development of patriarchy as a system of power. if you want to go right into the weeds with it, this is your place to dive deep. it’s not for the faint of heart or any unseriousness. lerner connects her points together with painstaking academic prowess and though it took a while to get through, i feel much more equipped to discern where patriarchy has places to be dismantled.

big gap of this book: the arc of focus on ancient mesopotamia into europe without also tracing these changes through africa. i get that it’s not her context or intention to do this patriarchal historical tracing globally; it seems the author is aiming to trace back the [patriarchy of the culture in which she lives. but it’s all connected and i think the author only forms a partial picture of what’s going on due to this omission.

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reminder: book review structure

words / writing / post-processing
778w / 20min / 5min