Patriarchy is a significant factor of society, specifically American culture, as we have been led primarily by men for as long as we can remember. Like oppression, sexism, racism, and discrimination, patriarchy is deep-rooted. Patriarchy can be described as a social system designed to ensure a male figure is always at the top, always the lead. Because society was structured and founded on this foundation of beliefs, patriarchy is ultimately the blueprint that leads to other issues such as racial and gender oppression. The fact that America has never even had a female president is a prime example of patriarchy and oppression, especially since all but one of our presidents have been both male and white. Such patriarchy often flows into our homes where families are traditionally dependent solely on the father to provide and act as the head of household, while women traditionally take on different roles such as cooking or cleaning. This ideology of life goes back as early as the hunter-gather era and is applied in some homes today.

Though it is in our nature as civilians to blame everything on a system, we often forget that we as civilians are the very ones contributing to the upholding of such systems. For example, Allan Johnson writes, “we also avoid taking responsibility either for ourselves or for patriarchy. Instead, ‘the system’ serves as a vague, unarticulated catch-all, a dumping ground for social problems, a scapegoat that can never be held to account and that, for all the power we think it has, cannot talk back or actually do anything”. In other words, as a society, we implicitly enable such ideologies by applying them to our individual lives, whether that be looking to men to do the heavy lifting or relying on the eldest woman in the family to prepare dinner every night. Through the lens of racism and oppression, the same concept applies. To be oppressed is to be limited as you must endure the unfair burden of the abuse of power. People of color, specifically Black people, experience oppression firsthand as they have the disservice of participating in institutions that conspire against them. Whether that be prisons where people of color are disproportionately incarcerated, or places of work where the natural state of Black people is frowned upon as certain hairstyles are socially deemed unprofessional, or schools where Black boys and girls are underrepresented in the curriculum. Although such flaws in the system directly impact people of color, the oppression is so deeply engraved into our society that everyone is affected. Audre Lorde, a Black lesbian woman, states, “I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you”. People of color certainly reap the effects of such systematic cruelty; however, those higher up in the hierarchy are too impacted as they benefit from the system due to simply being a male or, in this case, obtaining significant privilege due to their whiteness.

Although we are currently in a stage of revolution as women are far more encouraged to take on leadership positions and more often white people are becoming allies of their Black counterparts, there is still much work to be done to reverse these systems America was founded on.