From Russia to America, the politics of patriarchy

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The writer is the author of ‘The Patriarchs’

In a desperate effort to increase recruitment in the face of crushing losses since the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military launched a campaign urging men to quit their civilian jobs and join the army. “Be a man,” prompts the slogan. In the past year, the Russian government has also offered “Mother Heroine” medals to women with more than 10 children, to help boost birth rates and raise more future soldiers.

We need only look at our own family and friends to know that some men are not cut out for battle and some women would rather not have children. But this search for gender stereotypes—“to be a man” or to be a “hero mother”—reflects the most basic interests of all patriarchal states, from Russia to the United States. It doesn’t matter what an individual is suited for; it only matters that they fulfill their duty to society.

To understand why, we must look to prehistory. The seeds of this gender-based form of state control were sown at least 5,000 years ago with the rise of the world’s first states. The concern of those in power at the time was population: how to maintain its size and how to keep it under control.

Among the written evidence we have from ancient Mesopotamia, for example, are seemingly endless lists, including the earliest census records, painstakingly detailing how people were managed.

History shows that, for millennia, pressure increased on families to prove their loyalty to the state by having more children and by being willing to give up those children to defend the state. Young women were urged to stay at home and bear as many children as possible.

Genghis Khan, the legendary ruler of the patriarchal Mongol empire in the 13th century, introduced conscription for boys and men. Children as young as 15 could be recruited and taken from their homes for training.

In earlier times, women still had to be able to defend their societies as well as men. Legend has it that Khan’s own great-great-granddaughter, Khutulun, accompanied her father on military missions and insisted that any man who wanted to marry her would first have to beat her in wrestling.

But later, when modern nations were established, fighting and warfare became strongly associated with men. Femininity became synonymous with motherhood. These stereotypes are now so entrenched that women were not allowed to serve in frontline ground combat positions in the US military until 2015.

Population levels remain a source of concern for national governments. In February this year, China’s leaders were encouraged to look for innovative ways to boost birth rates after the country’s population fell for the first time in 60 years. The response of a local official was to offer free secondary education for the third child of each family.

In Hungary, the latest government plan to increase birth rates involves eliminating income tax for mothers under 30. Japan just increased the lump sum payment it offers families to help with baby costs.

The need to maintain high birth rates may also explain why abortion is political football in places like the United States and Poland. The first country to formally legalize abortion was Soviet Russia in 1920, to protect women who died from clandestine abortions. This was framed as part of the regime’s commitment to women’s liberation. In 1936, that decree was annulled by Joseph Stalin for one simple reason: birth rates had fallen too low.

Population is key to understanding how nations behave and why institutions of power have been built around the twin concerns of reproduction and defense.

The problem with the current patriarchal state is that citizens are less and less willing to meet their demands. President Vladimir Putin is one of the fiercest defenders of the traditional patriarchal family and outdated gender roles. But even he can’t avoid the queues of young men trying to avoid conscription by fleeing the country. Russia is facing a demographic crisis.

But these are not only Russia’s problems. All over the world, nations have to face their own demographic emergencies and battles for reproductive rights. The challenge for the 21st century, an era in which old gender norms are changing and universal human rights have been enshrined, is how to maintain population and national security while ensuring that citizens are free. to fight or have children.