A gendered system of social control that pervaded all aspects of human existence, including politics, industry, the military, education, philosophy, art, literature, and civilization itself (K. Millett 1970). This includes the ‘private’ spheres of love, sexuality, marriage, and children—the family is politicized as the foundation of patriarchal power; see Bennett (2006) Gender, Place & Cult. 13, 2. ‘Feminist writings extended the original commonsense meaning of [this] term to apply to a situation of male dominance in a society. This immediately raises the question of whether the term is purely descriptive, or whether it refers to an explanatory theory. It is important to appreciate this difference as many sophisticated feminist arguments use the term in its descriptive sense’ (Blackburn et al. (2002) Brit. J. Sociol. 53, 4).

‘Patriarchy and masculinity are not eternal but (like everything else) constructed products, and open to change’ (Massey (2001) TIBG 26, 2). Erman (2001) Int. J. Urb. & Reg. Res. 25, 1 shows how an urban community reproduces traditional patriarchal authority over in-migrants through the social construction of female labour within the framework of familialism, and the housewife ideology. Adams and Ghose (2003) PHG 27, 4 observe that Bollywood idols reflect not only patriarchy but subethnic and colonial power relations. ‘It is a sad fact that one of the few profoundly non-racial institutions in South Africa is patriarchy’ (A. Sachs, no date). Hern (2006) Pol. Geog. 28, 6 defines transpatriarchies as forms of patriarchy extending across and between national societies. ‘Remasculinization of public rhetoric and privileging economic and military concerns act to defend patriarchy diffusely (Connell (2005) Signs 30, pp. 1816–17), and have sharp impacts on diverse women’s livelihoods and political spaces’ (Radcliffe (2006) PHG 30, 4). See Waitt (2006) AAAG 96, 4 on white gay patriarchy.