ABSTRACT
The term patriarchy pressed into service as an analytical tool which might help to describe vital distinction. When contemporary feminists began to examine the world from a new perspective, bringing their own experience to bear on their understanding of history and modern society, they found it was necessary to distinguish women's subordination as a sex from class oppression. Inequality between men and women was not just a creation of capitalism: it was a feature of all societies for which we had reliable evidence. Patriarchy has been discussed as an ideology which arose out of men's power to exchange women between kinship groups; as symbolic male principle; and as power of the father. Zilla Eisenstein, who has edited an anthology of writings under that heading, defines patriarchy as providing the sexual hierarchical ordering of society for political control. There was felt to be a need for a wider understanding of power relationships and hierarchy than was offered by current Marxist ideas.
