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  • The Creation of Patriarchy

  • By: Gerda Lerner
  • Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
  • Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (41 ratings)

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The Creation of Patriarchy

By: Gerda Lerner
Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
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Publisher's summary

A major new work by a leading historian and pioneer in women's studies, The Creation of Patriarchy is a radical reconceptualization of Western civilization that makes gender central to its analysis. Gerda Lerner argues that male dominance over women is not "natural" or biological, but the product of an historical development begun in the second millennium BC in the Ancient Near East. As patriarchy as a system of organizing society was established historically, she contends, it can also be ended by the historical process.

Focusing on the contradiction between women's central role in creating society and their marginality in the meaning-giving process of definition and interpretation, Lerner explores such fascinating questions as: What can account for women's exclusion from the historical process? What could explain the long delay - more than 3,500 years - in women's coming to consciousness of their own subordinate position?

She goes back to the cultures of the earliest known civilizations - those of the ancient Near East - to discover the origins of the major gender metaphors of Western civilization. Using historical, literary, archaeological, and artistic evidence, she then traces the development of these ideas, symbols, and metaphors and their incorporation into Western civilization as the basis of patriarchal gender relations.

©1986 Gerda Lerner (P)2021 Tantor
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What listeners say about The Creation of Patriarchy

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Essential reading for all women

This was such an important book for me to discover. The author was so insightful and so knowledgeable. I love what she taught me.

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Why isn’t this being taught in all high schools?

Everyone should read this. EVERYONE. The Creation of Patriarchy allows us all to finally look at the water we’re swimming in; to see it, to analyze it, to begin to understand it. It can be hard to hear the systems we’ve lived in broken down and viewed through new lenses. But the epiphanies that emerge are worth the work.

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Amazing in all aspects

A must read for every human being
We all to understand our evolutionary history and our civilization history to be able to create a better future

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A Must For All

If you are just starting your journey into understanding what patriarchy is, or if you have been self taught for years, this book should be on your shelf. It is a quintessential historical overview of the roots of the beast we deal with today. It can be dry in some parts, but it is filled with gems and the knowledge contained will get you through those dry parts.

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Very insightful

I really enjoyed this. I like how the author starts from the hunter gatherer culture to our current times. It was very insightful and well written. It allowed me to see a different perspective on gender and my place in the world.

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Dryer than your Grandma's biscuits

The story was informative and did a good job explaining things. The book is the driest audio book I've ever listened to. The whole thing felt like a prolog that would never end. I kept checking to see how long was left in the chapter. I definitely would have DNF'd if I had been reading manually. Glad I got through it but I was fighting for my life almost every minute.

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