Punto de equilibrio

Definitions of patriarchy suggest that patriarchy is/has been the central focus of feminists’ thoughts and considered as the root cause behind the subjugation of women across the globe. However, its influence on women’s lives has been diverse from one society to another and, since the expansion of urbanisation, industrialisation, and globalisation, patriarchy has been transforming. Various feminists (i.e., Walby 1997; Kandiyoti 1988; Sharabi 1988; Moghadam 1993) have explored different forms or types of patriarchy, which are briefly discussed in the following sections:

Walby (1997) presented two forms of patriarchy: private (or more domestic gender regime) and public (or more public gender regime). Private patriarchy is based on traditional or agrarian/peasant societies, in which the male (patriarch) is sole authority. On the other hand, public patriarchy emerged with the expansion of capitalism. She argues that in advanced capitalist societies, private patriarchy based on the traditional patrilocal extended family is weakening, and a new form of ‘public patriarchy’ is growing. Unlike the complete exclusion of women from the public sphere in private patriarchy, the base of public patriarchy lies in the segregation and subordination of women within the structure of paid employment, and the state. However, the household is still the principal structure in public patriarchy. Further, she asserts that at least abstract-level patriarchy is composed of six structures: the patriarchal mode of production; patriarchal relations in paid work; patriarchal relations in the state; male violence; patriarchal relations in sexuality; and patriarchal relations in cultural institutions (including religions, media, and education) (p. 20). These different forms or structures of patriarchy are a continuum of the above-mentioned two main types of patriarchy.

Sharabi (1988), studying the prevailing patriarchal structures of Arab society and the introduction of new state laws- particularly of Muslim Family Law- has identified a form of patriarchy known as ‘neopatriarchy’; that is, ‘neither modern nor traditional’. He argues that the modernization of Arab society has failed to break down the traditional forms of patriarchy, however; the material modernization has given a modern form to existing patriarchal structures in Arab society. Similar to ‘classic’ and ‘private patriarchy’, neopatriarchy is ‘the dominance of father’, and according to Sharabi, neopatriarchy as a ‘distorted modernity’ is the cause of women’s sub-ordination. He anticipates women’s possible emancipation in true modernization (a unique historical

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development), that occurred in its original form in Western Europe (p. 3). Thus, Sharabi predicts the emancipation of women in modernization, while Walby argues that patriarchy does not lose in an advanced capitalist society, but it changes its form from private to public. Thus, Walby’s (1997) analysis and interpretation of patriarchy is particularly relevant to this study, because her interpretation suggests that patriarchy changes its forms due to changes in socio-economic and socio-political structures of society. However, that changing structure of family, society, or state still retains its core in male domination. Therefore, patriarchy still is the central point of gender studies.

Kandiyoti (1988) introduced the concept of ‘classic patriarchy’, and explored the significance of the reproduction of classic patriarchy based in the operation of the patrilocal extended household, which is also commonly associated with the reproduction of peasants in agrarian societies (p. 278). She brings women’s agency for maximizing their survival within patriarchy into focus, and question why women reproduce patriarchy within classic patriarchal societies. She finds a new way ‘for the identification of different forms of patriarchy through an analysis of women’s strategies in dealing with them’ (p. 275). She analyses the position of the mother-in-law in the family, and suggests women ‘buy in’ to patriarchy because there is a ‘pay out’ when they become senior ‘mother -in- law’. Further, she contends that women strategize within a set of concrete constraints, in order to maximise their security and life options (p. 274). She termed these strategies ‘patriarchal bargains’ that may also vary according to class, caste, and ethnicity, and may determine women’s gender subjectivity and the nature of gender ideology in different societies (Tabassum 2011).

The ‘women’s life cycle’ is another noticeable feature in classic patriarchy. For example, a younger or newly married girl has no power and say in the household, but later on, being a senior woman (grandmother), she enjoys more power within the household. Thus, the deprivation and hardship she experiences as a young bride is eventually superseded by the control and authority she will have her own subservient daughter-in-law. Therefore, this cyclical nature of woman’s power in the household and the anticipation of inheriting authority as a senior woman reproduces patriarchy (Kandiyoti 1988).

The class and caste impact on classic patriarchy creates additional complexity. For example, in upper castes (Sayed in Muslim and Brahmin/Rajput in Hindu), and the elite

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or upper middle class, the withdrawal of women from nondomestic work is a mark of ‘social status’; institutionalised in various speculation and exclusion practices, such as the purdah system and veiling (Kandiyoti1988). For example, statistics show that 50 per cent of women in Pakistan who graduated from medical colleges, never practiced as a medical doctor or worked in any capacity27.

In the context of classic patriarchy, women are considered a form of property (Hirschon 1984, cited in Moghadam 2004), and women’s or the family’s honour depends in great measure on women’s virginity and good conduct (Moghadam 2004, p.141). Thus, women’s honour, in fact a family’s honour, is linked to gender appropriate looks and behaviour and to maintaining and protecting the patriarchal, heterosexual institution of marriage (Menon 2012; Sathar and Kazi 2000; Kandiyoti 1988). Therefore, the question of gender-appropriate behaviour is inextricably linked to legitimate procreative sexuality, which is strictly regulated to ensure the purity and continuation of crucial identities, such as caste, race and religion (Menon 2012; Mumtaz and Salway 2009). Endogamy28 (i.e. cousins and cross-cousin marriages), and consanguineous marriages or marriages with relatives which lead to virtual village endogamy (Sathar and Kazi 2000) is a wider practice in Pakistan. In this type of marriage, there is a possibility of support and security extended by parents for a woman’s marital or other conflicts, as in-laws (Isran and Isran 2012). However, this type of marriage helps in reproducing patriarchy and maintaining patriarchal norms, because women do not normally have claim on their father’s patrimony (dowry; bride price) as it is given to the bridegroom’s kin and does not take the form of productive property such as land (Agarwal 2003, 1994; Sharma 1980). Secondly, a Muslim woman does not insist upon inheritance rights—as given in Islam—due to fear of losing her brothers’ favour. Her brother may be her only alternative in the case of ill-treatment by her husband, or divorce (Kandiyoti 1988).

27 _{According to BBC report more than 70% of medical students are women, however only 23% of} registered doctors are females. The report further says ‘in social gatherings, it is very prestigious to introduce your daughter-in-law or wife as a medical doctor’ (BBC News 28August 2015). Also see Ikram Junaidi (2014).

28 _{Endogamy is the dominant marriage pattern in Pakistan, according to Pakistan Demographic and} Health Survey (2013) more than half of all marriages (56 percent) are between first and second cousins. First cousins marriages are more common on the father’s side (28 percent) but also occur between first cousins on the mother’s side (20 percent), 8 percent of marriages are between second cousins, 9 percent are between other relatives and one-third (35 percent) are between non-relatives (p. 65).

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Patriarchy within the context of Pakistan shares the key feature, whereby men are privileged over women, but has nation-specific features. In Pakistan, there is generally a segregation of sexes maintained through the centuries’ old cultural and religious practice known as Pardah, and patriarchy norms, which play a significant role in fixing roles and responsibilities based on gender. In Pakistan, patriarchy describes a distribution of power and resources within families, which are maintained and controlled by men, and which render women powerless and dependent. The kinship system, the political system, and religion (Sathar and Kazi 2000) are the structural element of patriarchal control over women. Kinship in this context is based on patrilocal marriage, in which women move into their husband’s localities, while religion as an ideology and, as the normative force, channels behaviour and expectations (Cain, Syeda and Shamsun 1979). Further, one of the key essentials of the Pakistani family, the sexual division of labour, plays an important role in keeping gender-appropriate looks and behaviour intact. This sexual division of labour is not limited to individual households but extends even to the ‘public’ arena of paid work and, again, this has nothing to do with 'sex' and everything to do with 'gender' (Menon 2012; Walby 1990; Shaw 2000).