Androcracy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

Androcracy or andrarchy is a form of government in which the government rulers are men. This term derives from the Greek root words andros, or "man", and kratos (as in democratic), or "ruled".

Contents

[edit] Example

In modern societies, most governments are ruled by men. The rise of feminism in the 20th century brought access to contraception and increased equal opportunities for women, both of which enabled women to challenge the traditional hegemony of androcratic institutions. Nevertheless, studies have been conducted in Africa, Australia, and Europe which continue to demonstrate a disproportionate representation of men in government. As of 2004, women represented 15.5 percent of all parliamentarians. Nordic countries have the highest representation at close to 40 percent, while Arab states have the lowest, near 6 percent.

Riane Eisler uses this term in her book, The Chalice and The Blade, along with the term Gylany, a goddess-centered Partnership society, as opposed to Androcracy, a hierarchical dominator culture.

[edit] Gender bias

Androcracy as a gender bias may influence the decision-making process in many countries, and women's issues may or may not be poorly represented as a result of gender discrimination. Kleinberg and Boris point to a dominant paradigm which promotes wage-earning fathers with financially dependent mothers, the exclusion of same-sex couples, and the marginalization of single-parent families.

[edit] Gynecocracy

The opposite of androcracy is gynecocracy, sometimes referred to as gynocracy, or rule by women. It is related to but not synonymous with matriarchy. Evidence indicating historical gynecocracies survives mostly in mythology and in some archaeological records, although it is disputed by some authors, like Cynthia Ell in her book the Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory. The occasionally proposed theory of a "Universal Matriarchy" of prehistorical times is generally considered to be mythical and not a historical fact.

[edit] Books

  • Flanders, Laura. (2004). Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-587-8.
  • Flanders, Laura (ed). (2004). The W Effect : Bush's War on Women. The Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 1-55861-471-0
  • Martin, Mart. (2001). The Almanac of Women and Minorities in American Politics 2002. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-9817-7
  • Matland, Richard E. Montgomery, Kathleen A. (2003). Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924685-8
  • Melich, Tanya. (1996). The Republican War Against Women : An Insider's Report from Behind the Lines. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-37816-3
  • Pusey, Michael. (1989). Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes its Mind. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-33661-9
  • Eisler, Riane. (1987). The Chalice & The Blade: Our History, Our Future. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-250289-1

[edit] Publications

  • Studler, Donley T. Welch, Susan. (1987). Understanding the Iron Law of Andrarchy: The Effects of Candidate Gender on Voting Scotland. Comparative Political Studies. 20. July. 174-191.
  • Hakim, C. (2003). Family Matters. Australian Institute of Family Studies. 52. Sept.
  • Boris, E. Kleinberg, S.J. (2003). Mothers and other workers: (re)conceiving labor, maternalism, and the state. Journal of Women's History. 15. 3. 90. Sept.
  • Maddison, Sarah. (2003). Bombing the patriarchy or outfitting a cab: challenges facing the next generation of feminist activists. Women in Action. Aug.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links