Revision summary
Patriarchy is systemic male dominance across household, work, and state. It is a major cause of unpaid care, violence, and restricted agency. Oakley, Walby, and Engels supply the core tools. Class and caste intersect; they do not erase the gendered pattern. Extent: necessary and large, not a sole cause of every problem.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Patriarchy is a system of male dominance across household, work, sexuality, culture, and the state. It is a major cause of women’s problems. It is not the only cause, because class and caste organise which women suffer what.
Body
Extent as a cause
- Sylvia Walby named linked patriarchal structures. Ann Oakley made unpaid housework visible as a problem of work, not of nature.
- Friedrich Engels tied women’s subordination to private property, a Marxist root that still leaves patriarchy a relatively persistent order.
- Violence, restricted mobility, and son preference, which NFHS files, are organised as male right, not as accidents.
Extent as not the only cause
- Karl Marx: class decides who can buy safety and schooling. Poor women face a double load.
- Caste honour can intensify control of women as status property, a Weberian closure.
- Talcott Parsons’s expressive female role was an ideology of industrial family, not a law of nature, yet class still shapes who stays home.
Discussion
- Patriarchy is a necessary cause of the gendered pattern of problems.
- It is not a sufficient cause of every woman’s situation. Intersection is the extent-limit.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD PAT[Patriarchy] --> LAB[Unpaid care wage gap] PAT --> VIO[Violence mobility] CL[Class caste] --> INT[Intersection] PAT[PAT] --> INT[INT]
Conclusion
Patriarchy causes a large share of women’s problems in labour, body, and law. Oakley, Walby, and Engels name the mechanisms. Class and caste decide intensity and form. The extent is structural and high, not total and single.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How is Durkheim's theory of religion different from Max Weber's theory of religion?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q8(b)). View answer →
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If some women hold office, has patriarchy ended?
Office for a few is compatible with unpaid care and violence for many. Extent is about structures.
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Are men unharmed by patriarchy?
Rigid masculinities harm men too. The system still privileges men as a category.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2018 · Q3(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Define patriarchy. How does patriarchy manifest in interpersonal relations?
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