By thinking about gendered inequality as rooted in something unalterterable within us, we faily to see it for what it is: something more fragile that has had to be constantly remade and reasserted.

As a survivor of domestic violence, suffered mostly during the near-decade I lived abroad in Japan where patriarchy reigns and majority of the public, and even the family, often protect shame before the victim, I am inherently curious of the origins of gendered inequality. I’ve curiously probed historic accounts for evidence of matriarchal societies in books, myths, and among archaeological sites around the world, desperate for narratives that suggest precedents of something other than the dominant patriarchy that seems to grip much of the world’s societies today.

I’ve dialogued with friends whom live in particularly strong patriarchal communities, such as the Samburu in Kenya, where multiple wives and female genital cutting are accepted amongst their culture, trying to understand this acceptance whilst attempting to pull back the curtain further to a time when even these nomadic tribes may have been more gender balanced. I’ve conversed extensively in my own home, with our refugee brother from Ivory Coast, who tells me the Mother is the most revered authoritative figure in his culture whilst ordering me to serve food and drink in the same breath.

Though I’ve discovered evidence of matriarchies and matrilineal communities past, I’ve mostly not been able to pin point a particular moment in time when women began to lose their humanity in the eyes of a dominant ruling male class. This frustrates me, as I wonder how we can ever change a system if we believe it has been embedded in our DNA. And then I read The Patriarchs, by award-winning science journalist Angela Saini, and everything I thought I knew evaporated as I turned each page.

Thoroughly researched, articulate and appropriately critical of the evidence uncovered along the way, Angela’s The Patriarchs dives as far back as antiquity to the present day, asking what part we all play – women included – in keeping patriarchal structures alive, and why we need to look beyond the old narratives to understand why it persists in the present.

Indeed, Angela questions the relationship between military and political leaders’ strategic methods of securing power of people through ‘divide and rule’, separating out smaller groups among populations to create distrust from each other, making alliances difficult and shifting loyalties to those in charge.

Some excerpts:

Division is part of what gives patriarchy its power. The damage wrought by gendered oppression isn’t just economic or physical; it’s emotional and psychological. The effort of alienating daughters from parents, emotionally distancing wives from husbands, and demonizing those who don’t conform to narrow gender norms has been to foster fear and hatred of the very people in whom we might otherwise find support and comfort.
Patriachal control is, in one sense, no different from any other. What sets it apart is that it operates even at the level of the family….We can see clear links between that history of detachment and control, all the way to some of our more recent laws and beliefs.
But we can’t assume it has been the same all over the world. None of this was automatic…Patriachy as a single phenomenon doesn’t really exist, then. There are instead, more accurately, multiple patriarchies, formed by threads subtly woven through different cultures in their own way, working with local power structures and existing systems of inequality…If we are ever going to build a truly fair world, everything will need to be unpicked. There’s no way of separating out gendered oppression from the rest.
If we are ever to repair the damage caused by centuries of embedded patriarchal power, we can do it only by nurturing our shared humanity – the part of us that manages to love even where there are those seeking to divide and rule.

When I finished Angela’s pages and contemplated the questions she poses throughout her book, I felt afresh with hope. The Patriarchs indeed reads as a journey towards discovering that ultimately, as patriarchal control is not at all something rooted in our being, we have the capacity to challenge the structures of power that it lies beneath and collectively to transform these threads of control into more equal and just societies where our true caring, humanitarian nature can thrive.

English Title: The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule

Author: Angela Saini

Page Count: 320 Pages

Published: 2023

Publisher: 4th Estate

From The Publisher

In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how male domination became embedded in societies and spread across the globe.

In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how male domination became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present.

Travelling to the world’s earliest known human settlements, analysing the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and tracing cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, she overturns simplistic universal theories to show that what patriarchy is and how far it goes back really depends on where you are.

Despite the push back against sexism and exploitation in our own time, even revolutionary efforts to bring about equality have often ended in failure and backlash. Saini ends by asking what part we all play – women included – in keeping patriarchal structures alive, and why we need to look beyond the old narratives to understand why it persists in the present.

Praise for Angela Saini and The Patriachs

‘I learned something new on every page of this totally essential book’ - Sathnam Sanghera

‘This is a truly excellent, important and insightful boook. By unpacking the terms “patriarchy” and “feminism”, Saini reveals that the words themselves have complex histories. She reminds us to critique every piece of evidence and wade back through centuries of misunderstanding, misrepresentation and mistruths. A glorious work!’ - Jamina Ramirez, author of Femina

‘Bold, inclusive and beautifully told, The Patriarchs is a truly riveting investigation into the origins and consequences of structural power. The depth and originality of Angela Saini’s thought and research is breath-taking and world-changing.’ - Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women

‘Based on extensive interviews with leading experts, this wide-ranging book injects new life into debates on the origins of patriarchy.’ - David Wengrow, author of The Dawn of Everything

‘A deep and inclusive look at the historical origins of patriarchal structures we are still fighting today. A must-read for every feminist.’ - Rafia Zakaria, author of Against White Feminism

About the Author

Angela Saini is an award-winning science journalist and author of three books, including the critically acclaimed Superior: The Return of Race Science and Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong. Both are on university reading lists worldwide. She presents radio and television programmes for the BBC, and her writing has appeared in the Financial Times, Wired, and National Geographic. In 2022 she was a Logan Nonfiction Fellow in New York and resident scholar at the Humboldt Foundation in Berlin. In 2020 Angela was named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers by Prospect Magazine, and in 2018 she was voted as one of the most respected journalists in the UK.

Angela Saini Website