Matriarchy - in Feminist Thought

In Feminist Thought

For groups and communities without men, see Separatist feminism.

While matriarchy has mostly fallen out of use for the anthropological description of existing societies, it remains current as a concept in feminism.

In first-wave feminist discourse, either Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Margaret Fuller (it is unclear who was first) introduced the concept of matriarchy and the discourse was joined in by Matilda Joslyn Gage. Victoria Woodhull, in 1871, called for men to open the U.S. government to women or a new constitution and government would be formed in a year; and, on a basis of equality, she ran to be elected President in 1872. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in 1911 and 1914, argued for " woman-centered, or better mother-centered, world" and described "'overnment by women'". She argued that a government led by either sex must be assisted by the other, both genders being "useful ... and should in our governments be alike used", because men and women have different qualities.

Cultural feminism includes "matriarchal worship", according to Prof. James Penner.

In feminist literature, matriarchy and patriarchy are not conceived as simple mirrors of each other. While matriarchy sometimes means "the political rule of women", that meaning is often rejected, on the ground that matriarchy is not a mirroring of patriarchy. Patriarchy is held to be about power over others while matriarchy is held to be about power from within, Starhawk having written on that distinction and Margot Adler having argued that matriarchal power is not possessive and not controlling, but is harmonious with nature.

For radical feminists, the importance of matriarchy is that "veneration for the female principle ... somewhat lightens an oppressive system."

Feminist utopias are a form of advocacy. According to Tineke Willemsen, " feminist utopia would ... be the description of a place where at least women would like to live." Willemsen continues, among "type of feminist utopias ... stem from feminists who emphasize the differences between women and men. They tend to formulate their ideal world in terms of a society where women's positions are better than men's. There are various forms of matriarchy, or even a utopia that resembles the Greek myth of the Amazons.... ery few modern utopias have been developed in which women are absolute autocrats."

A minority of feminists, generally radical or lesbian, have argued that women should govern societies of women and men. In all of these advocacies, the governing women are not limited to mothers:

• In her book Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women’s Liberation, Andrea Dworkin stated that she wanted women to have their own country, "Womenland," which, comparable to Israel, would serve as a "place of potential refuge". In the Palestine Solidarity Review, Veronica A. Ouma reviewed the book and argued her view that while Dworkin "pays lip service to the egalitarian nature of ... societies, she envisions a state whereby women either impose gender equality or a state where females rule supreme above males."
• Starhawk, in The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993), fiction, wrote of "a utopia where women are leading societies but are doing so with the consent of men."
• Phyllis Chesler wrote in Women and Madness (2005 and 1972) that feminist women must "dominate public and social institutions". She also wrote that women fare better when controlling the means of production and that equality with men should not be supported, even if female domination is no more "'just'" than male domination. On the other hand, in 1985, she was "probably more of a feminist-anarchist ... more mistrustful of the organisation of power into large bureaucratic states ". Between Chesler's 1972 and 2005 editions, Dale Spender wrote that Chesler "takes a ... stand .... quality is a spurious goal, and of no use to women: the only way women can protect themselves is if they dominate particular institutions and can use them to serve women's interests. Reproduction is a case in point." Spender wrote Chesler "remarks ... women will be superior".
• Monique Wittig authored, as fiction (not as fact), Les Guérillères, with her description of an asserted "female State". The work was described by Rohrlich as a "fictional counterpart" to "so-called Amazon societies". Scholarly interpretations of the fictional work include that women win a war against men, "reconcil" with "those men of good will who come to join them", exercise feminist autonomy through polyandry, decide how to govern, and rule the men. The women confronting men are, according to Tucker Farley, diverse and thus stronger and more united and, continued Farley, permit a "few ... men, who are willing to accept a feminist society of primitive communism, ... to live." Another interpretation is that the author created an "'open structure' of freedom".
• Mary Daly wrote of hag-ocracy, "the place we omen traveling into feminist time/space"] govern", and of reversing phallocratic rule in the 1990s (i.e., when published). She considered equal rights as tokenism that works against sisterhood, even as she supported abortion being legal and other reforms. She considered her book female and anti-male.

Some such advocacies are informed by work on past matriarchy:

• According to Prof. Linda M. G. Zerilli, "an ancient matriarchy ... the lost object of women's freedom." Prof. Cynthia Eller found widespread acceptance of matriarchal myth during feminism's second wave. According to Kathryn Rountree, the belief in a prepatriarchal "Golden Age" of matriarchy may have been more specifically about a matrifocal society, although this was believed more in the 1970s than in the 1990s–2000s and was criticized within feminism and within archaeology, anthropology, and theological study as lacking a scholarly basis. Eller said that, other than a few separatist radical lesbian feminists, spiritual feminists would include "a place for men ... in which they can be happy and productive, if not necessarily powerful and in control" and might have social power as well.
• Jill Johnston envisioned a "return to the former glory and wise equanimity of the matriarchies" in the future and "imagined lesbians as constituting an imaginary radical state, and invoked 'the return to the harmony of statehood and biology....'" Her work inspired efforts at implementation by the Lesbian Organization of Toronto (LOOT) in 1976–1980 and in Los Angeles.
• Elizabeth Gould Davis believed that a "matriarchal counterrevolution patriarchal revolution"] ... is the only hope for the survival of the human race." She believed that "spiritual force", "ental and spiritual gifts", and "xtrasensory perception" will be more important and therefore that "woman will ... predominate", and that it is "about ... the next civilization will ... revolve", as in the kind of past that she believed existed. According to critic Prof. Ginette Castro, Davis used the words matriarchy and gynocracy "interchangeably" and proposed a discourse "rooted in the purest female chauvinism" and seemed to support "a feminist counterattack stigmatizing the patriarchal present", "giv ... in to a revenge-seeking form of feminism", "build ... her case on the humiliation of men", and "asserti ... a specifically feminine nature ... morally superior." Castro criticized Davis' essentialism and assertion of superiority as "sexist" and "treason".
• One organization that was named The Feminists was interested in matriarchy and was one of the largest of the radical feminist women's liberation groups of the 1960s. Two members wanted "'the restoration of female rule'", but the organization's founder, Ti-Grace Atkinson, would have objected had she remained in the organization, because, according to a historian, " had always doubted that women would wield power differently from men."
• Robin Morgan wrote of women fighting for and creating a "gynocratic world".
• Margot Adler reported, "f feminists have diverse views on the matriarchies of the past, they also are of several minds on the goals for the future. A woman in the coven of Ursa Maior told me, 'ight now I am pushing for women's power in any way I can, but I don't know whether my ultimate aim is a society where all human beings are equal, regardless of the bodies they were born into, or whether I would rather see a society where women had institutional authority.'"

Some fiction caricatured the current gender hierarchy by describing a matriarchal alternative without advocating for it. According to Karin Schönpflug, "Gerd Brantenberg's Egalia's Daughters is a caricature of powered gender relations which have been completely reversed, with the female sex on the top and the male sex a degraded, oppressed group"; "gender inequality is expressed through power inversion" and "all gender roles are reversed and women rule over a class of intimidated, effeminate men". "Egalia is not a typical example of gender inequality in the sense that a vision of a desirable matriarchy is created; Egalia is more a caricature of male hegemony by twisting gender hierarchy but not really offering a 'better world.'"

Egalitarian models are also promoted.

• Around 24 centuries ago, Plato, according to Elaine Hoffman Baruch, " for the total political and sexual equality of women, advocating that they be members of his highest class, ... those who rule and fight".
• On egalitarian matriarchy, Heide Göttner-Abendroth's International Academy for Modern Matriarchal Studies and Matriarchal Spirituality (HAGIA) organized conferences in Luxembourg in 2003 and Texas in 2005, with papers published. Göttner-Abendroth argued that "atriarchies are all egalitarian at least in terms of gender—they have no gender hierarchy .... or many matriarchal societies, the social order is completely egalitarian at both local and regional levels", that, "for our own path toward new egalitarian societies, we can gain ... insight from ... matriarchal patterns", and that "matriarchies are not abstract utopias, constructed according to philosophical concepts that could never be implemented."

" deep distrust of men's ability to adhere to" future matriarchal requirements may invoke a need "to retain at least some degree of female hegemony to insure against a return to patriarchal control", "feminists ... the understanding that female dominance is better for society—and better for men—than the present world order", as is equalitarianism. On the other hand, if men can be trusted to accept equality, probably most feminists seeking future matriarchy would accept an equalitarian model.

"Demographic", "feminist matriarchalists run the gamut" but primarily are "in white, well-educated, middle-class circles"; many of the adherents are "religiously inclined" while others are "quite secular".

Biology as a ground for holding either males or females superior over the other has been criticized as invalid, such as by Andrea Dworkin and by Robin Morgan, in The Demon Lover. A claim that women have unique characteristics that prevent women's assimilation with men has been apparently rejected by Ti-Grace Atkinson. On the other hand, not all advocates based their arguments on biology or essentialism.

A criticism of choosing who governs according to gender or sex is that the best qualified people should be chosen, regardless of gender or sex. On the other hand, merit was considered insufficient for office, because a legal right granted by a sovereign (e.g., a king), was more important than merit.

Diversity within a proposed community can make it especially challenging to complete forming the community. However, some advocacy includes diversity.

Prof. Christine Stansell, a feminist, wrote that, for feminists to achieve state power, women must democratically cooperate with men. "omen must take their place with a new generation of brothers in a struggle for the world's fortunes. Herland, whether of virtuous matrons or daring sisters, is not an option.... he well-being and liberty of women cannot be separated from democracy's survival." (Herland was feminist utopian fiction by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, featuring a community entirely of women except for three men who seek it out, strong women in a matriarchal utopia expected to last for generations, although Charlotte Perkins Gilman was herself a feminist advocate of society being gender-integrated and of women's freedom.)

Other criticisms of superiority are that it is reverse sexism or discriminatory against men, it is opposed by most people including most feminists, women do not want such a position, governing takes women away from family responsibilities, women are too likely to be unable to serve politically because of menstruation and pregnancy, public affairs are too sordid for women and would cost women their respect, and femininity (apparently including fertility), superiority is not traditional, it is impractical because of a shortage of women with the ability to govern at that level of difficulty, including the desire and ability to wage war, women legislating would not serve men's interests or would serve only petty interests, it is contradicted by current science on genderal differences, and it is unnatural.

Pursuing a future matriarchy would tend to risk sacrificing feminists' position in present social arrangements, and many feminists are not willing to take that chance. "Political feminists tend to regard discussions of what utopia would look like as a good way of setting themselves up for disappointment" and argue that immediate political issues must get the highest priorty.

"'atriarchists'" as typified by comic character Wonder Woman were criticized by Kathie Sarachild, Carol Hanisch, and some others.