the controversy
The family unit, mimicking the mechanisms of political hierarchy within cultures and society, serves, through its assertion of gendered roles, as a microcosm for the shifting of female power. As such, dominance is prescribed, not by individual merit but rather by one’s assertiveness. The clean causal link between one’s gender and one’s direct access to power within the family does not exist. However, historically, women were relegated to roles within the home. As such, femininity is inextricably linked with both motherhood and the home. Interestingly, as the progressive movement in feminist thought created economic opportunities for women outside the house, thereby increasing their economic presence in the family, their ascription as “matron of the house” does not shift. Rather, they now enter that role with new and more powerful voice.