Learning to Love the Patriarchy
NOT!

Patriarchy and the “women’s question” are central to the world economy, to political struggle, to which way the cookie will crumble (and who will be allowed to eat the crumbs). A combination of different factors (male dominance on the left, internalized sexism, and just plain theoretical backwardsness) makes patriarchy seem invisible to many of us. But like “dark matter” that gets astrophysicists all hot and bothered, patriarchy can be shown in theory to account for most of what is out there (while it can be equally difficult to actually locate it or prove its existence in specific cases).
While acting like any recognition of women’s importance is either a matter of generosity or chivalrous good humour, institution after institution, economy after economy, state after state, would be swept away without women’s support, or at least acquiescence. One should not confuse the left’s inability to easily mobilize women’s opposition or support with women’s “unimportance” or “apolitical nature” – rather, it is clearly a sign of the left’s continuing weakness.

Further reading:

The Military Strategy of Women and Children , by Butch Lee
Jailbreak out of History , by Butch Lee
Night-Vision, illuminating War and Class on the Neo-Colonial Terrain, by Butch Lee and Red Rover
The Coming of Black Genocide , by Bottomfish Blues
Homegrown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism, by Abby Ferber (a lot of crap in this book, but a lot of good stuff too)
Right-Wing Women in Chile, Feminine Power and the Struggle Against Allende 1964-1973, by Margaret Power
Qaddafi's Female Bodyguards: Shadows of a Leader , documentary film by Rania Ajami
Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale , by Maria Mies
Reclaiming Zimbabwe: the Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation, by Horace Campbell
Women Need a World View, by Butch Lee
Three Into One: The Triple Oppression of Racism, Sexism and Class, by Klaus Viehmann
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Arab Women, Liberal Feminism and the Israeli State" , Lisa Hajjar (MERIP)