The Working Class Must Smash the Patriarchy
Dalton Nolan
2/17/2025
For as long as human society has existed, patriarchy has existed alongside it. Under patriarchy, an extra layer of hierarchy exists in which only two genders are recognized—male and female—and one gender dominates the other in all spheres of life. This dynamic leads to the creation of a society in which men and women are divided into clear and explicit roles that serve the interests of the ruling classes throughout history. Though the class system modifies patriarchy, creating a clear distinction in the presentation of patriarchy between the toiling masses and the ruling classes, in general, the gender roles of men and women in society cross class lines. Within patriarchy, men are granted the power of agency and, by extension, the power and recognition to shape the world around them; in contrast, women are to always be the supporters of male development and advancement, sacrificing everything for them. In patriarchal logic, men are the “breadwinners,” and women are the “homemakers,” allowing for a “proper” division of society that creates a group of workers and a group that reproduces the workers. Despite this, the present economic system demands a steady supply of workers in order to maximize profit, and since it takes time to raise a child to become a wage slave, society was forced to allow women into the workforce. However, this creates a contradiction: women are supposed to be “homemakers,” according to the patriarchy, but the vast majority of them are workers. This contradiction has been at the heart of the oppression and exploitation of women for nearly two centuries.
The oppression and exploitation of women within class society are extensive. At the heart of their oppression, women are deemed subservient to the men in their lives, whether they be male co-workers, their husbands, their fathers, etc. From this, women are expected to default to male authority and power, meaning that women are to never have any agency of their own, lest they present a challenge to the men in their lives. As a result, the accomplishments or abilities of women are either downplayed or directly opposed. Ultimately, this damages the autonomy of women and adds to the societal pressure for women to be “homemakers,” reinforcing the extremely lopsided sexual division of labor tied to maintaining a family. This reinforcement happens even as women are forced into selling their labor to the owning class, meaning that women are imposed an unbearable workload of being full-time workers, full-time mothers, and full-time wives. This situation isn’t helped by companies' disregard for the plight of mothers (who they claim to support) when they schedule them 50 to 60 hours a week or are ready to reprimand them for taking time off to care for their sick children. This is all in addition to paying women less than their male counterparts, the societal pressure of keeping them in “female jobs,” and the regular sexual harassment that they can experience from male coworkers and management.
Outside of the workplace, women’s reproductive freedom has been attacked, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade prompting a wave of highly restrictive abortion laws and outright bans. This has threatened the health and mental well-being of women in general as many of these new laws disregard the contexts of pregnancy in support of a pro-life agenda at all costs, even if that agenda directly risks the welfare of the mother. To make this worse, women are targets of the highly predatory beauty industry. Under the current economic system, the beauty standards of our time have joined hands with the patriarchy to create an industry that profits off the low self-esteem and self-hate of millions of women as they desperately try to achieve and maintain an unrealistic definition of beauty to feel that they have any worth. In essence, patriarchy’s transformation of women into unquestioning servants of men makes them objects that are no different from a commodity to be “purchased,” in this case by male attention and respect. The result is the perpetuation of the patriarchy, the beauty industry, and the oppression and exploitation of women. However, the patriarchy affects groups of women very differently, especially when we take into other chauvinist attitudes and beliefs, such as white supremacy. Women of color, even when they attempt to perform femininity as defined by patriarchy, are viewed as lesser than their white counterparts, creating a stratified hierarchy of women in which skin color defines their value and whether they receive patriarchy’s favor and protection.
Though the patriarchy’s main targets of oppression and exploitation are women, men are not safe from its poison. Yes, patriarchy grants men some benefits, which makes it appear that they should have a vested interest in defending this system, but this narrow analysis ignores the negative impacts the patriarchy has on men. Femininity is rigidly by the patriarchy, so too is masculinity. According to the patriarchy, men must be physically imposing to be able to defend themselves, their family, and their property; men cannot be deeply emotional unless that emotion is rage or lust; men must pursue women or at least desirable to women; men must become “high-value,” meaning they are economically successful, which borders on being a capitalist; and finally, men have to be in constant competition with one another, as they have to prove that they are better than others at performing masculinity. The result of all of this is men who are locked in a swamp of depression and self-hatred as they are unable to perform masculinity the way that the patriarchy defines it. And with the constant demand to compete in the arena of masculinity, men lack the social connections they could use to navigate their emotions. To make matters worse, any attempts to engage in deep platonic gestures are immediately treated as something “sexual” and are derided as “gay,” with men distancing themselves from anything remotely homosexual, reinforcing the association of human connection with the lesser. As with women, the patriarchy affects groups of men differently. The intersection of white supremacy with the patriarchy also creates a stratified hierarchy of men, where men of color are given different definitions of masculinity or are entirely barred from being masculine. This is further reinforced by sexuality, with men of different sexual orientations being automatically defined as less masculine if they are anything but heterosexual.
Like women, men, too, have their own predatory beauty industry that exploits their self-hatred and low self-esteem for profit. The male beauty industry is a bit less explicit but still very telling, with ads featuring Olympian-bodied men wearing advertising clothing or cologne. However, there is another more concerning institution that is directly affecting men and reinforcing all the same negative attributes of the patriarchy: the Manosphere. For those unfamiliar, the Manosphere is a male-dominated space on the internet that promotes masculinity as defined by the patriarchy, misogyny, and even our present economic system, often under the guise of “hustle culture.” There are many entryways into the Manosphere, as many of the issues affecting men are topics discussed ad nauseam by those associated with the Manosphere, such as issues with dating or exercising. However, where other online creators may provide a more balanced or positive take on these issues, the Manosphere doesn’t, with its creators twisting all of these topics to reinforce the patriarchy, promote the hatred and demonization of women, and being a “self-made” man through dubious seminars that often are Ponzi schemes. Regardless of the subgroup within the Manosphere (e.g., Incels, Pick Up Artists, online influencers), the Manosphere is an incredibly toxic and dangerous place that overlaps with the far-right, with the same people creating Manosphere content also interacting with and promoting far-right figures like white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
The patriarchy is all about control; it doesn’t matter if you’re male, female, or gender non-conforming. At the end of the day, the patriarchy forces all of us into narrowly defined boxes that support the “proper” division of society that the owning class wants. Even though the present economic system creates a contradiction in the patriarchy with women entering the workforce, the owning class still benefits from exploiting the labor of women. Under the patriarchy, our lives are based on completely unrealistic metrics that are impossible for anyone to pursue, leading to our physical and mental health declining severely, as men desperately push their bodies to the limit, women are forced to get injections and costly plastic surgery, and gender non-conforming people are violently pressured to be “real” men or women. Finally, the patriarchy breeds division between men, women, and queer people in different ways, with queer people not even being recognized and respected within the patriarchy. It is for all these reasons and more that the patriarchy must be smashed to pieces. The patriarchy serves no one except for the owning class, who have the wealth and power to ignore the negative effects of the patriarchy while benefiting from its usage as a tool to control and exploit working and oppressed people
Patriarchy is the enemy of all working and oppressed people, regardless of background and identity, for it is a tool used by the owning class to divide, control, and exploit, reinforcing the status quo at the expense of the lives of billions. As such, along with systemic racism, queerphobia, and many other oppressive institutions and systems, the patriarchy must be eradicated. Without the patriarchy, the world that working and oppressed people usher in will be one built upon greater freedom of expression, less stress and fear, and better physical and mental health. In this world, no more will men, women, and gender non-conforming people be forced into narrowly defined boxes and roles. Instead, every single person would have the freedom to decide for themselves who they are, giving them the power to express themselves and their gender however they see fit. With this, there would be less stress to “perform” and less fear of being ridiculed, taking a massive weight off people’s shoulders, and sparing their mental and physical well-being from the tolls that such performance demands. In this world, a world built by and for working and oppressed people, we all can live our lives not as caricatures but as our true selves.