Patriarchy

America as we know it is a patriarchal society.

Male dominance runs rampant in all categories of our lives. Take a look at blue collared jobs. Take a look at white collared jobs. There is now a something called "pink collared jobs" to differentiate between traditional male oriented jobs and women oriented jobs. Wow. Can America get any more sexist? Apparently so. Women get paid 69 cents to the dollar compared to a full dollar a man may earn. Women are frequently the victims in cases of rape or in domestic violence. This all attributes to a male dominated society.

Even in Shakespeare, there are traces of patriarchal motifs embedded within the text. Take a look at "A Midnight Summer's Dream". Egeus and Hermia, Oberon and Titania. Greek law (according to the play) has it that the daughter must obey the father or face death or expulsion from society. Crazy, right?

Most of the nations in the world are patriarchal societies. Women are marginalized to the home. In post communist Poland, women's rights were diminished (ironically, during Communism, women had more rights than in democratic Poland). They were not given pay when on maternal leave. Maternal leave was shortened. Women are hired last, and first to be fired. Interestingly, the women in Poland are more educated (college-level) than most men. To compete with each other (and with the men), they are driven to higher education in hopes of finding a job.

- Michael Koh