posted January 24, 2009 03:31 AM              

Like the word Patriarchy .

We dont have that or a similar term in Hindi or most languages that i know of.

If 70 % of the population , both male and female is employed , in the agricultural sector , both earning the same, usually jointly as a family- is it a Patriarchy ?

If 20 % of the remaining population engaged in manufacturing industries where the men and women are fully employed is a Patriarchy ?

If of the remaining 10 % , 5 % are women who work in the service sector , in desk jobs like any american woman - a Patriarchy ?

And if of the remaining 5 % , the women choose on account of good financial conditions to be homemakers -

Does that make India a Patriarchy ?

posted January 24, 2009 03:35 AM              

These are the bottom rung of society in our economy.Here farmers are treated socially as one community and subject to religions and sub-communities marry in that same class .

Men and women in these families do not have access to education beyond high school and usually on account of poverty and lack of government fuding - the remotest villages do not have schools at all.

Which means neither men nor women have access to education and live pretty much the way agricultural life was back in the 1800's.

also, it is not a choice for a farmer's wife to be a farmer - its the only choice.

their routine goes something like this..

wake up, do the morning chores, cook breakfast sans appliances which takes 2 hours, get the kids ready while the husband does the other chores and get ready to go to the fields by say 11.

Here the family ,sometimes including the children,has to work for 4 hours.

The wife takes a break an hour before and goes off to get the lunch ready and since in ourt culture the parents of the husband live with us - the mother in law helps in the chores .

with the lunch ready the wife takes it and sets off to the fields where the family has lunch and it is back to work until sunset.

thereafter the family goes home for some quiet family time and dinner is followed by sleep.

Assuming the kids do not have access to the free schooling our govt. provides to both the genders, male and female.In villages where the govt run schools are working both boys and girls from such families are sent to school - however on account of poverty many families choose to have their kids working irrespective of gender to keep the home running.

the exceptions to the above are the farmers at the higher end who have made more money and live like any middle class perosn would.

Inspite of this the women still have to work in the home business and are delegated finances or administration over the subordinate farmers.

posted January 25, 2009 09:18 PM            

the reason you were taken to task about patriarchy, venus, is because you ADVOCATED a return to patriarchal values as opposed to the matriarchal values of a mother-raised family. i.e. you suggested either yourself or through one of your articles, that the man should be the sole breadwinner and ARBITRATOR/ADMINISTRATOR of said bread, giving his wife what he saw fit PROVIDED she complied with HIS needs. THAT is also PATRIARCHIC.

in matriarchy, possessions and power descend through the mother's line. she makes the plans and dishes out the cash, so to speak. it does NOT mean single parent families! though frequently it means more communal forms of homemaking/childraising. most matriarchies have men involved! but they are relegated, like women in most societies today, to secondary status.

england with its aristocracy is basically patriarchal...despite having had a couple of queens on the throne running things, it is the sons who inherit from the fathers unless there are NO sons, where the daughter IS allowed succession - some countries would look high and low for a distantly related male before allowing such a thing!

posted January 25, 2009 11:44 PM            

I think blessed are they who tried and failed than those who never tried. In the animal world, the male scorpio dies immediately after interc__ with the female
scorp, So its upto the scorp female to look after the offsprings. Thats matriarchical. In the bee world the queen is given the most royal treatment because she lays eggs. Thats matriarchical. In the movie happy feet , didn't they show two male penguins carrying for a offspring when the female is dead? very unconventional indeed.

With humans , a child is really dependent for a long time, perhaps the longest -- what is it 14-16 years? In the best interest of the child, we must stop living per our religious books that has instilled greed for heaven in our sub-conscious since centuries.

Gee, I am so liberal when it comes to sociology LOL.