Seeing Like a Feminist

by Nivedita Menon

The three key interlinked features of this ‘Indian’ family are—patriarchy (power distributed along gender and age hierarchies, but with adult men trumping older women); patriliny (property and name passing from father to son); and virilocality (wife moving to the husband’s home.) In this configuration, patrilineal virilocality is the key, isolating women from all previous support systems and leaving them entirely at the mercy of their husbands’ families.