Capitalism and Patriarchy in Walby’s Theorizing Patriachy

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Walby’s Theorizing Patriachy
Among the several strands of feminism, patriarchy is a shared theme. By definition, it denotes male dominance in a society. The concept of patriarchy is the central issue evident in Walby’s work. Despite Walby’s work contributing to other areas, including political science, social theory, industrial sociology, and globalization, it is recognized for its immense input in gender analysis of the social world. According to Walby, the idea of patriarchy ought to remain key to a feminist comprehension of the society. In particular, throughout her work, she argues that six patriarchal structures exist: paid work, household production, culture, sexuality, violence, and the state. In comparison to men, the existence of these structures limit women’s freedom as well as life. The key argument in the Theorizing Patriarchy is that capitalism and patriarchy are analytically autonomous, leading to the exploitation of women.
Mode of Production and Paid Work
All the six forms of patriachy result in women exploitation differently, as intermediated by capitalism. The patriarchal mode of production operates at the economic level. In terms of this mode, men in both household relationship and marriage commandeer women’s labor. The distinctive feature is the relations of production under which work is conducted instead of the tasks constituting the work. As a dictated by patriarchy, women are limited to perform tasks, such as cleaning and cooking, for their husbands. As homemakers, women perform these tasks for their dominant husbands. In other words, the woman offers labor to a man who expropriates it. The exploitation occurs because the woman is not rewarded with salary or wage for his labor except money for maintenance in certain situations. The man in the relationship is capable of expropriating the labor of the wife since he possesses the labor power that she had produced. Particularly, the man effectively owns the fruits of the woman’s labor and is able to sell it as it were it his own. Walby’s accounts of paid work, as a form of patriarchy explains why men continue dominating best-paid jobs while women occupy inferior positions. Overall, many women decide not to work or pursue part-time occupation due to the availability of poor job opportunities.
The State
The second form of patriarchy is the patriarchal state. The effect of the state on gender relations emanates from its nature. As a patriarchal structure, the state dictates the access of resources by women. According to Walby, the state can exclude women accessing both power and resources partly because of the segregation of women from direct presence in the state. Moreover, women’s lack of power within the gender political forces also contributes to the lack of access to state power. The patriarchal exclusion of women from important decisional areas of the state are evident in multiple practices. For instance, in the past, women were denied voting right. Although they were granted voting rights about sixty years ago, they are still victims of indirect forms of exclusion, as evidenced by their 6% share of the Members of Parliament. Notably, unlike men, women are not powerful enough to influence the state.
The row that the state is a perpetrator of patriarchy does not indicate that it is a monolith. Fundamentally, different branches of the state disagree about patriarchal strategies as well as the representation of capitalist and patriarchal interests, as argued by Walby. For example, Walby disagreements ensued over the regulation of women’s paid work. Patriarchal aspects of the state significantly shapes gender relations. For instance, they influence divorce and marriage rules and fertility by criminalizing or decriminalizing abortion. Recent debates concerning women rights to control their health and abortion are few manifestations of the effect of state patriarchal relations. Walby considers the state a patriarchal, capitalist, and racist. Based on these arguments, the author strongly argues that the state has failed on improving women’s position in public arena and enforcing equal opportunities legislations, allowing men to dominate the gender divide.
Male Violence
The third patriarchal structure is male violence, which leads to the suppression of women. By nature, male violence is not random and does not occur in isolation. Rather, it occurs in a systemic setting, when the state fails to condemn men to women violence. In reality, male violence has a social structural characteristic that is complex. According to Walby, the patterning of this violence form cannot be comprehended based on individual psychologies. The failure of the state is the reason men perpetuate female violence through non-interference. With the less involvement of the state, men utilize violence as a form of power to subjugate women. Worth noting is that not all men feel the need to use this potential power for it to affect women.
Male violence constitutes different practices aimed at dominating women. Examples of these practices include rape, father/daughter incest, wife-beating, sexual harassment at the workplace, and sexual assault. These practices are criticalin shaping women’s actions, and subsequently might be regarded to have causal capability. Male violence, through these practices, cannot be the outcome of a few outlier deranged men or be restricted to a violent sub-culture. Rather, in trying to comprehend the patterns of male v...