The Hidden Reality of Women Under the Patriarchy

Some lessons aren’t spoken out loud; they’re learned through observations, and the reality of being a woman is one of them. Women were always taught to swallow the truth that they weren’t allowed to do the things their brothers did freely for their own protection; however, this is society’s way of justifying patriarchal control over women’s bodies as protection.

One notable example is the restriction of a woman’s ability to travel to protect her, whilst their own male counterparts could freely travel with their friends across the globe. This narrative that caging women is for their own benefit, however, all comes crashing down when faced with the reality that most murder cases of

women happen at the hands of someone the victim already knows. It is quite

jarring to realise that a woman’s own home has a higher probability of endangering her life more than the streets.

Moreover, it is also important to account for the fact that women are taught to worry for their reputations much more because her reputation is less redeemable than that of a man’s. Men can go abroad and commit sins, then return home to police their female relatives. For the same things that men get to enjoy abroad, those things would make irreparable damage to a woman’s reputation had a woman done those things. Whereas men can oftentimes harm their female relatives and still face no societal consequences for committing such an act.

It is also from observing many women around them that other women began to view marriage as increased control and surveillance over their own lives, rather than as a commitment. It is from observing women around them give up their dreams and aspirations as soon as they get married that they start to fear and reject the idea of marriage. Furthermore, the belief that your husband has the

right to control your life if he is kind enough reinforces the patriarchal idea that

men are worthy of enforcing control over women’s bodies. In reality, women are their own people with their own agency over their lives and bodies, irrespective of their male spouse and relatives, and to pretend otherwise only further alienates women away from the idea of marriage. 

Despite all this, women learn that speaking up for themselves is often met with punishment at worst and silencing at best. Social structures still argue that patriarchal control over women’s bodies is for the welfare of women, but honour killing and domestic violence have statistically posed drastically bigger threats to women’s lives compared to international travel, which exposes that the underlying reason for such control is control over women’s autonomy rather

than true concern for a woman’s well-being. The societal and legal structures that exist today continue to hinder a woman’s ability to fully grow, whilst simultaneously benefiting men who have been known to abuse the power the patriarchy allotted them.