Sociological Gender Relation Theory: Critique, Bibliography (Essay Sample)

Introduction
Patriarchy often elicits an overly clear monolithic conception of male dominance and women subordination in society. Theorizing Patriarchy by Sylvia Walby is both a critical academic and a didactic political approach to the study of the society. Theorizing Patriarchy is a lucid and subtle investigation of the socio-economic, cultural and political condition of men and women in the contemporary society. Sylvia Walby’s Patriarchal and sociological gender relation theory offers a wide range of theoretical tools for understanding gender relations and the development of the Feminist theory. Sylvia Walby’s concept of patriarchy and sociological gender relations though vital for the analysis of the feminist theory has failed to tackle the various historical and cross-cultural forms of women’s subordination. Patriarchy refers to the male domination over women both in the public and private spheres in society. Essentially, patriarchy is a system in society that keeps women subordinate in some ways that have set the stage for the contemporary feminism (Bennett, 2006).
On the other hand, feminism is the awareness of patriarchal control, exploitation, and oppression of women in all spheres of society. The feminist theory terms patriarchy as the power relationship between men and women and in society in the context of women subordination. The politics of the patriarchal and sociological gender relation theory have suppressed women’s voices and dominated the social discourse and action that has benefited men to the detriment of women. Patriarchy refers to the prime obstacle to women’s progress in development and advancement. In today’s world where women progress on merit, patriarchy is still present to create obstacles to women’s progress in development and advancement. Society’s patriarchal institutions and relations are responsible for the inferior or secondary status of women in society. The patriarchal nature of society gives absolute priority to men while limiting women’s human rights (Bankston, 2000).
Critique
Sylvia Walby's concept of patriarchy and sociological gender relations is an essential tool for the analysis of the Feminist theory and gender relations. The concept of Patriarchy and capitalism about gender inequality in the exploitation of women's labor are analytically independent as put forth by Sylvia Walby in her book Theorizing Patriarchy. The relevance of patriarchy to feminism has a strong footing, as Sylvia Walby’s theoretical account gives as much weight to the system of capitalism as it does to the system of patriarchy. Rather than dependently perceiving the particular situation of women subordination as an effect of the concept of patriarchy, Sylvia Walby understands that the system of capitalism was at least of equal importance to understanding the contribution of the subordination situation of women to feminism. Sylvia Walby just like other proponents of her school of thought, dissatisfaction with both the concept of patriarchy and feminism taken alone motivates her to develop a conception of the relevance of patriarchy to the feminist theory. She states that the concept of capitalist patriarchy is essentially gender blind and, therefore, aggravates the subordination situation of women in society. Her definition of the concept of patriarchy in its theoretical development used is slightly different and hence clearly specific. Consequently, the proper exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of her theoretical development in the definition of the concept of patriarchy is not adversely affected. She does not incorporate the generational element into the definition of the concept of patriarchy that other contemporary writers on the subject have advanced. The omission of the generational element in Sylvia Walby’s definition of the concept of capitalist patriarchy brings out explicitly the gender inequality theory in which the aspect of men’s domination over each other is central to women’s subordination (Dziedzic, 2012).
The contemporary theoretical development of gender inequality presented in the book, Theorizing Patriarchy establishes men’s domination over each other as leading to women’s subordination due to its essentialist conceptualization of patriarchy. Sylvia Walby provides empirical evidence to support the essentialist conceptualization of patriarchy that provides a clear explanation of this variation. The ability to integrate a clear explanation of her essentialist conceptualization of patriarchy into her theoretical discussion leaves it as a tight empirical end. The essentialist conceptualization of patriarchy develops the details of the forms of the concept of patriarchy as a system of social structures, and practices in which men advertently dominate, oppress and exploit women (Bennett, 2006).
The contemporary theoretical development of gender inequality in Sylvia Walby’s book, Theorizing Patriarchy, explicitly implies the rejection of both biological determinism, and the notion of the superiority-inferiority complex between men and women in society. The conceptualization of patriarchy ought not to be at varying levels of abstraction to exist as a system of social relations that include capitalism. However, Sylvia Walby’s conceptualization of capitalist patriarchy is not homologous to exist in articulation with the system of social relations. Her argument did not recognize the reduction of patriarchy to capitalism despite that gender relations in society significantly change with capitalism. According to Sylvia Walby in the book, Theorizing Patriarchy, Feminism was not a derivative of either capitalism or patriarchy (Fuller, 2011).
Additionally, she considered capitalist patriarchy concept, and feminism to be analytically distinct in the explanation of the continued subordination and unequal status of women in society. Patriarchy and feminism are distinct forms of social relations with distinct sets of interests that coexist even in conflict. Endemic to the history of the interaction between patriarchy and feminism are the conflicts over the labor exploitation of women in the interests of capitalism and patriarchy. Sylvia Walby’s Theorizing Patriarchy seemed to have a deep engagement with the history of interaction between capitalist patriarchy and feminism (Fuller, 2011).
However, some of the existing accounts in Sylvia Walby's book, Theorizing Patriarchy have shortcomings whose flaws are irredeemable. The existing accounts have intrinsic weaknesses of the relevance of the concept of patriarchy to feminism. Sylvia Walby's concept of patriarchy and sociological gender relations have advertently failed to tackle the historical and cross-cultural variations in society's gender inequality. Theorizing Patriarchy, in its expression of the relevance of the concept of patriarchy to feminism, has additionally failed to address the ethnic and class differences between women. Sylvia Walby does not explain gender inequality because of patriarchy in the context of capitalism since gender inequality is too broad and complex to trace back its origin to the concept of patriarchy. Writing this kind of general survey meant Sylvia Walby had to cut corners and hence inevitably left out major discourses simply referenced rather than intrinsically explored. The scope of entities such the conceptualization of the relevance of patriarchy to feminism was shorthand and hence lacked the required clarity.
Gender equality in the workplace in the state of Qatar is still low about that of other regions of the world due to the patriarchal structures of the sociological gender theory. Sylvia Walby's sociological gender theory applies to Qatar women regarding the discrimination they face in the workplace in the Qatar state (Healey, 2003).
The sociological gender theory puts forth clearly the discrimination against women in the Qatar workplace that constitutes subordination. Discrimination against women in workplaces in the Qatar state constitutes women subordination along with violation of basic human rights that have posed obstacles to the achievement of the objectives of gender equality in the workplace. The state of Qatar has experienced decades of discrimination against women in the workplace that has emerged as one of the most visible and articulated social issues in Qatar that generates women’s subordination. Patriarchal structures of male domination and women’s subordination form the basic tenets and constructs of the state of Qatar’s social structure. All forms of discrimination in the state of Qatar’s workplace against women constitute the social, political, economic and cultural differences between men and women embedded in the sociological gender theory. Sylvia Walby’s sociological gender theory has established the male dominated Qatar state society and workplace. The extent of application of the sociological gender theory in the state of Qatar’s workplace stretches to the elimination of women’s equality replacing with the formation of women’s subordination that ultimately constructs a workplace system that produces women’s subordination (Kaser, 2008).
While some countries like the state of Qatar are at very high levels of human development, this status does not necessarily compare with high levels of female employment in the workplace. In the context of the sociological gender theory propounded by Sylvia Walby, the main features of the female labor force in the state of Qatar workplace include low participation rates and female labor force shares, occupational distribution, administrative and managerial presence, age and high rates of unemployment. The Qatar state workplace women's labor force rates are low by the set international standards. The conditioning of women's dependency upon and subo...