Gender Inequality Emerged From Agriculture?
The world wasn’t always marked by sex inequality. Particularly in plant-based societies there is much of evidence of parity.
So what happened?
No one knows for sure since we have no clear record of the transition — which may have occurred in different ways in different places. But based on archaeological, historical, and anthropological evidence, we have a few theories.
Three of them make a lot of sense to me. They involve 1) arid land, 2) efforts to avoid inbreeding, and 3) agriculture.
Let’s take a look at that last one.
Agriculture, animal husbandry and inequality
Some think that gender inequality arose from agriculture and animal husbandry partly because they introduced the concepts of inequality, ownership and control:
- Agricultural surplus creates the possibility of large inequalities
- Notions of control and dominance arose from controlling plant and animal life
- Private ownership of produce and herds created an ownership-mentality
Connected to animal husbandry, as males (animal and human) were discovered to play a role in reproduction, women no longer held the sole “magic” power to create life. Men came to be seen as a life force, too, planting their seed. So women lost a degree of reverence.
Also, as reproduction took on economic value as animals were sold or children were needed to farm, reproduction came to be more controlled. Plus, fathers wanted to pass property to children, which was another reason to control women’s reproduction.
Men control because they’re less connected?
But as Allan Johnson points out, these precursors to patriarchy don’t necessitate it. You don’t do something just because you can.
Why not continue passing property through mothers? Why don’t women take control and become dominant?
Something else must have been going on, too.
Dr. Johnson, thinks men might be more likely to experience themselves as rising above, transcending and controlling both themselves and others because their bodies lack the monthly bleeding that would be a constant reminder of connection to the natural rhythms of birth, renewal and death.
Less abstractly, he points out that men herded cattle, and as populations grew and got in each other’s way, men might respond with fear and attempts to control and dominate.
These could all be contributing factors, but other things might be more important.
Separation from public life and the means of production
In early societies women’s focus was more on gathering food and raising children, while men more often hunted, traded, and fought. The different jobs didn’t create inequality.
But as agriculture created wealth and complex societies, simple treaties grew into elaborate international relations and simple trade turned into complex business transactions. Men had done these things in their simpler forms early on, and just kept doing them as they grew more complex, eventually emerging as the business and political leaders. Meanwhile, their female partners kept on nurturing children outside the world of business and politics. And outside of power and status.
But in many cultures women were enmeshed in political and economic life. What about them?
As agriculture created stable communities with wealth accumulation, specialized labor and trade, and as societies grew more complex, childrearing moved from “the village raises the child” to individual families raising children, with responsibility placed firmly on mom’s shoulders.
As a result, women lost power and status as they left the public sphere and grew separated from the means of production.
We don’t really know what caused patriarchy, but these are a few ideas.