On "Archy"

By: Liberate Zealot


In basic terms Patriarchy is a form of social organization where the father is the authority in a family/clan/community and ancestry is traced down the male line.  In feminist terms it describes the legal, social, and relational interactions between men and women where men are in a favored position with greater power.  Even when fathers are no longer the legal head of the family the culture is still Patriarchal when the societal construction has men with a disproportionate amount of power both at the societal and (in most cases) individual level (even if this is no longer legally the case).  Many people believe once legal equality has been met (as it has in many countries, like the US) that means there is no Patriarchy and that equality has been met. However, there are many examples of Patriarchy still existing all over the world. Here are just some examples in regards to institutional powers and societal interaction. 

• Women are under represented in all forms of government the world over.  We make up a little more than 50% of the population however only 18 countries have a woman as their current Head of State.  There are 193 countries in the UN.  In the US where women attend and graduate from college at higher numbers they hold only 17% of seats in Congress, 6 out of 50 states have women as governors, and women make up 24% of state legislators.  Things are even more dismal for women of color, which touches on Kyriarchy. 
• Men interrupt women more then they interrupt other men. This has been proven multiple times, along with the fact that men interrupt more in general (more than 90% of interruptions come from men), and that when women interrupt they are likely to do so by asking questions or making supportive statements as opposed to not letting the other speaking finish their point. 
• The Global Gender Gap is a report issued every year by the World Economic Forum, examines the gender gap based on economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.  It measures how each country does in regards to equality and ranks them accordingly.  Iceland is ranked 1, which means it has the smallest gender gap, not that women are fully equal there. 
• The existence of femmephobia and the treatment of more "masculine" traits and appearance as androgynous. 

However, there's another word to describe the uneven power structures of societal and the oppressions that these inequalities cause women (and others) to experience.


Kyriarchy, a term coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, is an expansion of the idea of patriarchy to include the multiple interconnected and interacting oppressive power structures that are present in the world. It includes, but is not limited to, racist, classist, ableist, cis-sexist, and heteronormative.  The fact is that the people in power are not only predominately men, but also predominately white, straight, able bodied, cis, and born into a higher class.  Their disproportionate power (like that of men and the Patriarchy) is dependent of the oppression and lack of power of people of color and/or queer, disabled, and poor people. 


The term Kyriarchy is used by intersectional feminists and other social justice activists. And I am trying to get better about using it instead of Patriarchy since that is a limited word that applies to one type of oppression and privilege and thus ignores the experiences of many (most) women who suffer under more than one master. 

"Feminism is not just about sexism, because women as a group are not solely oppressed on the axis of sex. "