The 'iron cage' for women: patriarchal authority in contemporary heterosexual relationships

 

This image exemplifies one of the propaganda used to support a marital equality bill passed in Australia in the year 2017. The bill aims to disseminate and uphold conservative ideologies of normalized, compulsory heterosexuality in opposition to homosexual couples. However, it nevertheless implies patriarchal messages. For example, a portion of the bill states that the 'fundamental feature of a marriage between a man and a woman is the modelling for children born from, or raised in, that marriage of the gender difference and complementarity of the man and the woman.' This legal statement situates men as the heads of households and conveys the implicit gendered notion that women are only homemakers and mothers, whereas males are always breadwinners earning family wages, due to their complementary gendered characteristics with compatibility in different spheres, which segregates the public and private space and creates structural disadvantages for women. Clearly, as a visual representation of demanding marital relationship inferred by the bill, this image reinforced and even encouraged its patriarchal agenda. The woman was pictured as an 'ideal housewife' who restricts herself solely to domestic production and family life, serving her husband with the sweetest smile in the most stereotypic, standardized, and expected way: a descent dress, high heels, and delicate make-up. The husband, sitting in a couch with bright stripes that serve as the focus point to always catch the first attention, looking back to her in tilted eyesights with an intriguing smile, as to demonstrate his masculine feature that empowers him to enjoy his wife's service. 

Both the legalized bill and this accompanying image reflect the contemporary marital relationship under the patriarchal authority. Weber stressed that marriages are historically patriarchal, with male dominance in marriage extending its legitimacy to women's whole sphere of life. The exclusive sphere of marriage and family life stifles the development of mental and intellectual knowledge, the advancement of morality and ethics, and the campaign for liberation and democracy for women. Women devote all their labor power to men, sacrificing their personality, individual rights, and consciences to family life and childbearing and abandoning their potential contributions to intellectual work in order to focus on providing full care for their husbands. Thus, the dominant status of men within heterosexual relationships is not limited to the marital space but infiltrates and penetrates throughout women's entire lives (Weber [1912]2003:94). 

In the contemporary world, the "iron cage" for women—the social contract of marriage—becomes even harder to break. Rationality and the intellectual realm are progressing more rapidly than ever, yet men are still privileged, far exceeding women in almost all domains of social production except for family and domesticity under the historical legitimacy of patriarchy. They are pacing simultaneously alongside the advancement of the society, with accumulating intellectual knowledge and mental capability; whereas women, on the other hand, are locked and shackled inside the private domain under the predominating patriarchal authority. As the society progresses, the developing economy creates increasing opportunities for individual personality, which also gives chances for married women to fully exert their ability and potential to pursue and accomplish their self-determination. Nonetheless, this progress only solidified the iron cage, making it more stable and unbreakable than ever. The legitimized claim that married women are unable to balance pursuing personal determination and fulfilling motherhood responsibility limits their deserving independence and autonomy, depriving them of only feeble rights under the compulsory pecuniary dependency and child-bearing morality. Weber describes how women are being systematically suppressed and restrained, always inferior and obliged to subordinate the totality of their whole being into 'almost a child, naive to the world, intellectually contented, enclosed in the circle of the household, and fixing her interest on the purely personal and trifling.' (Weber [1912]2003:93). This present-day image illustrates Weber's argument on how patriarchal authority in heterosexual relationships is still active even today. In this picture, the husband is still the unchallenged center, the only one that is sitting on a single-seated couch, with his wife and daughter both standing around but showing similar, satisfying facial expressions. Instead of depicting a married couple sitting together on a bigger couch with greater carrying capacity, the wife leans happily towards him, just like the childlike housewife under Weber: she always secures an idealized, carefree, and contented life by centering around her husband and voluntarily succumbs to patriarchal control. Patriarchal marriage is justified in even more forceful and coercive ways, with legally enforced statements on gender compatibility and complementary roles sealing women to their legitimized and undeniable responsibility of morality, motherhood, and child-breeding. What Weber might be wishing for is a fair, autonomous, and egalitarian marital relationship, with men and women sharing equal responsibility and rights in parental roles and decision-making processes.(Weber [1912]2003:92). Both partners should be independent in personal determination that is entirely free of the other side's control, especially those being forcibly imposed upon women by men. 

Notwithstanding, despite improvements on the distribution of parental rights in intermarriage decision-making and child custody, the contemporary society continues to exalt a marital relationship with patriarchal authority, with the unwillingness to accept a complete renunciation of male superiority still stubborn and robust. In general, the lasting impacts of the world-historic, patriarchal marriage are gradually dissolving and losing their legitimacy, as women are gaining heightened status and increasing rights in multiple social spaces. Yet the overall hegemonic, ideological, and theoretical framework nevertheless remains influential and pervasive. Its untouchable, intangible influences still make it challenging for women to fully embrace their status and personality, and enjoy the refreshing breezes of equality, liberty, and autonomy they deserve.

Source

Weber, M., and C.R. Bermingham. 2003. Authority and autonomy in marriage: Translation with introduction and commentary. Sociological Theory 21(2): 85–102.

https://kategalloway.net/2017/11/13/marriage-equality-bill-straight-from-the-patriarchy/