Ill-treatment and humiliation of an individual woman by an individual man is not an individual problem. It is simply one manifestation of the system of male domination of women.

Societal tolerance of pitiable condition of women is also a reflection of patriarchal norms which, more generally, support male dominance in family and society.

Del Martin [Battered Wives, 1976, quoted by Yllo Kersti in Finkelhor and Gelles (ed.), The Dark Side of Families, 1983], a noted feminist, has said:

The historical roots of patriarchal family models are ancient and deep. Unless new norms of marriage and family are created, the victimisation of women will grow naturally out of ancient and time-honoured traditions.

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Dobash and Dobash (1983) have also emphasised this factor in explaining violence against women. They assert that “men who use violence against women are actually living up to cultural prescriptions that are cherished in society aggressiveness, male dominance, and female subordination and they are using force as a means to enforce that dominance”.

Patriarchy creates structural and institutional conditions whereby residence, lineage, authority and property rights tend to be the prerogative of males. Thus, male dominance is an obvious consequence of a structural milieu which conditions men for power and women for subordination, defines male domain as public and female domain as domestic.