3. What are male dominance and
patriarchy? What does recent research
show about how prevalent male
dominance has been throughout history
and throughout the world?

On page 330 it says, "...male dominance,
which refers to the beliefs, values, and
cultural meanings that give higher value
and prestige to masculinity than to
femininity, that value men over women,
and that institutionalize male control of
socially valued resources. PATRIARCHY
is the term used for forms of social
organization in which men are dominant
over women."

So, male dominance is the idea that men
are better than women, can do things
better, should be in charge all the time,
etc. Patriarchy is when there's an
organization (work place, etc.) in which
the men actually ARE placed above the
women.

In every culture (I think) men are usually
dominant over women. As we saw in
table 12.1, all the harder jobs were done
by men. Smelting of ores is completely
done by men. Hunting is either exclusively
or usually done by men, and there was
only one culture in which boat building
was exclusively done by women. But you
know what's odd? There was NOTHING
on that chart that was 100% done only by
women. The men were dabbling in a little
bit of everything! In cartoons we see
cavemen with their big club dragging
mammoths (or women) home to the
cave. We see the cavewomen nursing
babies and keeping the fire hot. This just
reinforces the whole idea that men
should be the breadwinners and women
should be the happy little housewives.

PHOOEY!