Patriarchy
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Description
Patriarchy marks the hierarchical authority of priest-fathers over other men and boys and all women and girls. It is a mistake to think of patriarchy as an exclusively contemporary term of criticism arising from and within feminism. John Locke, the father of liberal constitutionalism, begins the great argument of the Second Treatise only after he has refuted in the First Treatise Robert Filmer's patriarchal defense of absolute monarchy, based on a divine right theory that Filmer traces lineally to Adam, the first patriarch. It is Locke's criticism of the unreasonableness of Filmer's version of theologically rooted patriarchal absolutism that is foundational to modern liberal political theory. This theory arises from an ideal of political ethics, treating persons as equal bearers of basic human rights, that condemns political absolutism and calls for some form of constitutional democracy that both better respects basic human rights (like the right to conscience and speech) and renders politics democratically accountable through regular elections. It is a tribute to the power and influence of Locke's argument for liberal democracy in the Second Treatise that almost no one, except a few feminists, even reads let alone remembers the First Treatise. But the few feminists, like Carole Pateman, who have taken the First Treatise seriously may be on to something, namely that Locke's version of egalitarian contractualism does not take seriously the degree to which, for example, patriarchal marriage, based on the alleged naturalness of gender hierarchy, violates his moral egalitarianism (women are not treated as equals).
Source Publication
The Encyclopedia of Political Thought
Source Editors/Authors
Michael T. Gibbons
Publication Date
2015
Volume Number
6: P - REC
Recommended Citation
Richards, David A. J., "Patriarchy" (2015). Faculty Chapters. 1913.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1913
