In 5 pages this paper examines Great Britain in a discussion of where patriarchal societies originated and how women's rights issues are being addressed. Two sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JL5_JLPat.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Although it is not entirely clear at which point patriarchal cultures evolved in western society, some commentators are of the opinion that the earliest societies were matriarchal, or at
least based on a system of matrilineal descent, whilst patriarchal societies evolved later as a result of economic considerations. Sewell (2001) for example, considers that the earliest patriarchies developed
at the point at which clans became more settled, during the Barbarian period, and improved methods of agriculture let to more settled communities and the advent of private property.
Because of the way in which labour was divided within the community, property which was acquired by the family was the property of the man, even though shared by the
women, but under a matrilineal system children could not inherit from their fathers. The male position in the family was becoming more important than the womans, but this was not
reflected in the laws of inheritance. Consequently, in order that the children could inherit the family wealth which was the property of the father, patrilinear inheritance became the norm.
Whether or
not the earliest cultures were indeed matriarchal, it is certainly the case that virtually all of the major world religions have given rise to patriarchal cultures: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism