Walby’s Theory of Patriarchy: A Critical Review in the Context of Pakistan

Abstract

Sylvia Walby’s (1990) theory of patriarchy has attracted considerable attention in the recent years, especially in the western countries. This paper presents a critical review of ‘patriarchy’ as a theoretical concept and suggests that while Walby’s theory is considerable improvement over previous theories of patriarchy, it is not without limitation when applied to explain gender relations in countries like Pakistan. The paper further propose that in order to better theorize gender relations in South Asian context, Walby’s theory of patriarchy need to be combined with concepts like “patriarchal bargain” (Kandiyoti, 1988) and “patriarchal gender contract” (Mughadam, 1992). Moreover, owing to the fact that patriarchy governs the lives of men as well as women, and that one’s gender is interconnected with other features including one’s age, class, race, and ethnicity, a holistic theoretical approach is required for understanding gender relations. For this purpose, the theory of patriarchy needs insight from such concepts as ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Connell, 1995) and ‘intersectionality’ (Collin, 1990). A synthesis of these different concepts would better provide the required theoretical lenses to understand gender relations in countries like Pakistan.