Social class, status, and power are predetermined by one's gender. Within any patriarchal society, men simply possess greater power than women. Patriarchal thought produces male dominance, and authority within multiple areas, including politics. Throughout history, governments have designed laws to maintain such divisions of power, resulting in the oppression of women. Patriarchal power constructs sexual differences as political differences by giving legal form to the belief that women, because of their sex, are fit only to serve as wives and mothers.
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