She.

Patriarchy wasn’t just built by men — it’s upheld by both men and women.
In every culture, patriarchy survives because it is passed down — through gender roles, generational cycles, and societal expectations.
This post explores how women, often unknowingly, help sustain the system — and why reclaiming power is the first step in breaking it.

Yes — patriarchy was created to benefit men.
But it’s not just men keeping it alive.

Women play a role in upholding it too.
Sometimes without realizing it.
Sometimes out of fear, tradition, or habit.
But it’s still happening.

It happens when mothers tell their daughters to “stay quiet,”
when women say “this is just how marriage works,”
or when we’re taught that being a “good woman” means staying no matter what.

Simone de Beauvoir once wrote in The Second Sex (1949):
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
That means society teaches us how to be women —
but the version we’re taught often demands obedience, silence, and self-sacrifice.
And many of us have helped shape the next generation in its image.

Let’s be clear:
If we want to break the system,
we have to stop passing it down.

Because every time we praise endurance over self-respect,
every time we raise boys like kings and girls like servants,
we are choosing patriarchy — again.

Power must be reclaimed —
but first, it must be recognized.

Women are not just victims of the system.
We are also its teachers, enforcers, and defenders — until we decide not to be.

We don’t get to ask for change
while protecting the same ideas that have always kept us small.

Patriarchy isn’t just out there.
It’s in us — until we rip it out.

Change doesn’t only happen in laws or protests.
It happens in homes, in conversations,
in the way we raise our daughters and treat ourselves.

So today we ask:
Who taught us to bow?
And why are we still doing it?

This is a rebellion.
Not just against history.
But against everything — and everyone 
who benefits when we stay small.

The system is not just male.
The system is anyone who protects it.