The Matriarchy?

Dear Reader,

Are you thinking there is a spelling error in the title, that it should read ‘The Patriarchy?’  That is what feminists continually tell us is one of the great ills of the world, Patriarchy, the rule of fathers and how they systematically oppress women in the world.  Like original sin the Patriarchy infests all of human society and twists and distorts it to subjugation by the powerful male.  Marriage is the main institution by which the Patriarch wields his power, exerting his ‘toxic masculinity’ over the family.  Religion, which sanctions and defines marriage, is the power behind the male throne – especially the Abrahamic religions with their image of an omnipotent, omniscient, male God.  The male, the family and God therefore must all be overthrown if womankind is to be liberated.

Feminism is one of the foremost ways in which identity politics is expressed.  As with all expressions of identity politics it starts by dividing one section of society from another and casting one of the sets as oppressor and the other the victim.  Here it is the female and the male with the female cast in the victim role.  The female is thus given the moral right and the male morally condemned.  No matter how heinous the female or virtuous the male they are defined by their sex, individual responsibility is over-ridden. Being recipients of moral authority enables the re-writing of social structures and laws, so the maintenance of victimhood becomes an imperative whatever the reality of the situation. To maintain victimhood the message must be controlled, facts and figures presented in such a way as to continually serve the objective; in other words objectivity and truth-telling are ditched for propaganda.

The aim of all varieties of identity politics is ostensibly a radical egalitarianism, the removal of all power structures and authorities, a kind of anarchism where self-determination is the only true principle.  Little thought is given as to whether this is a desirable goal and if it is how it can be achieved and maintained.  The world is structurally unequal and hierarchical, there are weak and there are strong.  In actuality there is no way for this egalitarianism to be achieved, without the application of rigorous law, but all that achieves is the creation of a different entrenched hierarchy and systematic oppression. 

There are three main areas in which the Patriarchy is said to most openly exert its control, violence towards women,  the gender pay cap and reproductive freedom (contraception and abortion.)  Is it true that women are an oppressed minority, victims of a powerful male patriarchal system?  Situations will differ from culture to culture, society is not uniform.  The picture here in the UK is more complex than one might first think, here are some counter-narrative statistics garnered from the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Average Age of Death: Men 79.3 years, Women 82.9 years

Suicide as Cause of Death: Men 17.2 / 100000, Women 5.4 / 100000

Prison Population: Men 77420, Women 3410

GCSE A* – C Pass Rate: Boys 61.5%, Girls 70.9%

University Applications: Men 269660, Women 367300

Gender Pay Gap for full-time employment: 8.9% overall but for under 40s, close to zero, under 30 probably negative (i.e. women under 30 earn more than men)

Victims of violence: Men 800000, Women 400000

Victims of Domestic Abuse: Men 685000, Women 1300000 (1.3 million)

In all the above statistics, excepting that of the gender pay gap for the over 40s and domestic abuse, it is clear that women and girls have the advantage – and by some large degree.  There is a common denominator between these two factors of pay and domestic abuse which is relationships and child bearing.  Thus far mankind has not, for the most part, been able to disentangle men and women when it comes to the laws of attraction and having babies; ‘male and female created He them.’  This is why ‘reproductive freedom,’ that is abortion rights, are so fiercely advocated by feminists; child-bearing threatens the autonomy of the woman.  In the UK the outworking of current laws to sustain female autonomy results in some devastating statistics: 

·      Over 200,000 pregnancies, that is approximately 1 in 4 are terminated every year

·      42% of marriages end in divorce 

·      60% of divorces are instigated by the woman

·      Over 40% of children in single parent households live in poverty and have lower than average educational attainment – condemning them to lifelong poverty.

Society however continues to recognise the necessity for the economic involvement of the man with his children through compulsory financial maintenance orders, with criminal sanctions of fines or even jail if they are not kept. Whether or not the couple are in a committed relationship, whether or not the man wants the child, he must pay.  It is the legal enforcement of the gender pay transfer, the transfer of resources from the male to the female to support the mother and child.  This transfer is done voluntarily within committed relationships but can collapse if that relationship breaks down and is ended, for example through divorce. The divorce statistics bear testimony that this is a successful policy in supporting the autonomy of women; with their financial position shored up by the male under threat of legal sanction, women are much readier to end the relationship with the father of their child. There appear to be no figures compiled to evaluate the scale of the gender pay transfer, the lack of them renders real assessment of pay gaps between men and women impossible – a lack of data that suits the feminist lobby.  However, figures from Courts are available to show that a typical maintenance grant on divorce requires the man to pay 12% of his salary to the mother for her support and for a single child (in addition to any asset split that occurs.) If this figure transfers into continuing, healthy relationships it eliminates any meaningful gender pay gap.

The rights of women are also triumphant in the laws on abortion. Other countries do things differently but here in the UK, the man has no right, all rights reside with the woman; he cannot save the child he wants if the woman wishes to terminate.  The latest legal push is for the removal of all rights from the unborn child as well, with motions being tabled in Parliament for abortion up to birth, on demand.  Lobbyists are even pushing for post-natal abortion (i.e. infanticide / child murder), arguing that the baby lacks full personhood and should not therefore be ascribed human rights. With all rights in the hands of women they are not in any form under oppressive Patriarchy, they are in fact uniquely empowered as the only group within society with the legal power of life and death.  It is tragic that the rights and ‘freedoms’ which women have obtained through the acceptance of feminist arguments leads to such suffering through single parent poverty and the trauma of abortion.

The fundamental flaw of feminism is to treat people as autonomous units.  Humans are social beings made to operate in pairs and families.  In the biblical Book of Genesis this is described poetically within the first two chapters.  First Adam is created, then finding no equal or companion God creates Eve from his side as ‘flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone,’ finally the man and the woman re-unite to become again ‘one flesh.’  It is a picture that accurately depicts the equality and co-dependence of men and women, that this relationship is at the heart of human life, that the two are made for each other.  In chapter 3, after the Fall and mankind has turned away from obedience to God, God says to Eve, that having rejected His rule, one of the consequences is the she will endure the rule of her husband – hierarchy is built into creation. Similarly he says to Adam, that by consequence of listening to Eve and following her into disobedience, his labour will be much more arduous.  It is not a curse but a consequence, an accurate description of society as it actually is. Hierarchy is built into creation, it is its structure, its skeleton.  It is not hierarchy and power that is the problem, it is how that power is wielded, to dominate or to serve.  The abuse of power within a domestic setting does not discredit the entire institution of marriage any more than the breakdown of a car disproves the concept of cars.  What is required for a malfunctioning marriage is a marriage garage, not a crusher.

The basic social unit for society is the family, a man and woman raising children together within a wider context of kin and community.  It is a model that has survived for millennia and is almost universal across human culture.  Having the pro-creation and raising of children as a high priority within the family causes the family to be structured around that purpose, producing emotionally healthy children and building up the next generation.  Men and women are dependent upon each other in that purpose and find fulfilment within it beyond an different from what they can achieve as lone individuals. We need a return to a holistic, family centred social policy that sees men and women not as autonomous, independent and competitive units but as couples and families working co-operatively towards a better future.  Laws that build up that fundamental social unit are required, not laws that make divorce, abortion and division ever easier.  Feminism is the siren song of division luring women and men onto the rocks of antagonism and social breakdown, we should stop our ears to it.

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