Patriarchy: the Family Un-Locke'd

Locke's main goal is to disestablish the patriarchy that has been confining the family, but he wants to keep the family intact. A restructuring of the family. At first glance, patriarchy seems natural. It is "an accomplishment that meets natural needs and purports to solve the problem of the wandering, uncivilized man" (22). Locke talks about the "abler" as the ruler of the family, but Scott Yenor points out that this does not specifically mean men. Yenor writes that "First, men rule as abler and stronger persons, not as men. Locke's family is open to claims from superior women since he justifies rule on the basis of merit" (26). But with the rule of patriarchy being on the basis of the man, not on the basis of merit, it is very easy for the system to become corrupt. The temptations for the patriarch are strong and lend to "their progeny by enslaving or mis-educating [children] to an intense partisanship" (Yenor 24). Furthermore, this patriarchy seeps into politics creating an absolutism style of control, furthering the patriarchal rule.

In order to avoid this patriarchal abuse, Locke suggests a separation of the family structure from that of government by setting them up with separate ends. Yenor states that "Political society aims to secure men in the possessions and use of property, while families seek to teach children how to acquire and manage property" (29). Locke explains the goals, or ends, of the family as education of the child. Scott Yenor points out that education is necessary because "human beings do not initially possess the rationality or freedom to make themselves consistent with reason" (29). As part of this, the father is a necessary part of education. Yenor writes that "Nature seems to demand that a male and a female are needed for procreation and, perhaps, that both are needed for education youth to rationality" (25). On the father's part of this education, Yenor writes that "the central goal of [patriarchy] is for children to learn obedience to something greater than, and outside, themselves" (22). For Locke, the man is important to the overall structure, but him being male does not presume his dominance.