It’s Time to Ask: Is the ‘Patriarchy’ a Feminist Myth?

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Henry Herrera: +1-301-801-0608

It’s Time to Ask: Is the ‘Patriarchy’ a Feminist Myth?

August 18, 2025 – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres resorted to harsh rhetoric as he denounced what he called the “poison of patriarchy,” categorically claiming that opponents to gender uniformity are happy to “throw equality to the wolves.” (1)

Addressing the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Guterres was referring to the fact that women currently hold 27% of seats in national parliaments worldwide (2), a number that appears to be impervious to the usual nostrums of gender equality activists.

Guterres is a life-long socialist (3). And according to Marxist theory, men and women should be seen as interchangeable in their ambitions and interests.

But reality paints a different picture. Multiple surveys show that around the world, women consistently prioritize family and relationships over political ambition (4,5,6).

And experience reveals that male lawmakers consistently favor women in the laws they pass. in 1994, for example, mostly male legislators voted to approve the American “Violence Against Women Act.”

But rather that claiming that every difference is caused by discrimination, it’s time to ask, Is there really such a thing as “patriarchy”? Patriarchy refers to a social system in which men hold power and authority in political, economic, social, and cultural institutions, to the disadvantage of women.

But a review of the facts suggests a very different picture. In 12 areas – education, health, status of boys, false allegations, victims of violence, shared parenting after divorce, treatment by the criminal system, resources for male victims of domestic violence, homelessness, workplace injuries and deaths, adoption and reproductive rights, and media portrayals – men are lagging substantially behind women (7).

A sceptic might point out that if all-powerful patriarchs are seeking to wield their boundless power for the sole benefit of males, they are doing a rather poor job.

Partisans who believe in the existence of the “patriarchy” often cite the gender wage gap. But the fallacy of the gender wage gap is exposed by these facts:

In the United States, Asian women now out-earn White men (8).
Patrice Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum has stated flatly, “There is no gender pay gap.” (9)
Numerous studies show when work experience, hours worked, risk of injury, and other factors are taken into account, the gender wage gap goes away (10,11,12).

For example, men dominate in hazardous jobs such as mining, construction, and logging. As a result, men experience 15 times the rate of occupational deaths, compared to women (13). Paying these men a higher wage is fair compensation for placing their lives at risk.

Patriarchy is also invoked to explain problems such as domestic violence. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem once claimed, “Patriarchy requires violence, or the subliminal threat of violence, in order to maintain itself.” (14) But feminists fall oddly silent when the conversation turns to female-on-male violence.

The time has come to bring an end to the irrational belief in an all-encompassing and all-powerful “patriarchy.”

Contact Secretary-General Guterres: sgcentral@un.org

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance – DAVIA — consists of 192 member organizations from 39 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. DAVIA seeks to ensure that domestic violence and abuse polices are science-based, family-affirming, and gender-inclusive. https://endtodv.org/davia/

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