MEN, WOMEN, AND PATRIARCHY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ‘HONOUR’ BY ELIFSHAFAK

Abstract

This research paper deals with the issue of how women have been subjugated by the male members of society besides the law and values assert the equality of humankind. It also demonstrates the suffering of female characters in a patriarchal society. This study focuses on the social structures in which women are dominated, exploited, oppressed, and given secondary status. In a patriarchal society, women are supposed to be controlled by male members although they participate equally in the field of development. Patriarchal societies are present everywhere not only in Turkey or England. The purpose of this study is to highlight the social relations between male and female members of the society by applying the six postulates of patriarchy proposed by Sylvia Walby (1989). Analytical and qualitative research has been carried out. The results and the findings of the research show that in a patriarchal society women are given secondary status and they are sub-ordinated due to their proposed inferior sex by male individuals.