From a sociological standpoint, patriarchy is a dominance-based hierarchy in which men have some measure of dominance and primacy - but it's also a highly stratified pecking order that goes beyond gender. Racism, homophobia, and things like garden variety bullying are all functions of a patriarchal social system. Here's a bit more about that if you are interested and thanks for your honest question.
A story in New Scientist entitled Why Egalitarian Societies Died Out, has this to say:
“FOR 5000 years, humans have grown accustomed to living in societies dominated by the privileged few. But it wasn’t always this way. For tens of thousands of years, egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies were widespread. And as a large body of anthropological research shows, long before we organized ourselves into hierarchies of wealth, social status, and power, these groups rigorously enforced norms that prevented any individual or group from acquiring more status, authority, or resources than others.
Decision-making was decentralized and leadership ad hoc; there weren’t any chiefs. There were sporadic hot-blooded fights between individuals, of course, but there was no organized conflict between groups. Nor were there strong notions of private property and therefore any need for territorial defense. These social norms affected gender roles as well; women were important producers and relatively empowered, and marriages were typically monogamous.” (as distinct from harems or polygyny — socially monogamous does not necessarily equate to sexually monogamous, however)
The first sentence of the New Scientist quote is important because it speaks to a central aspect of patriarchy — social stratification. This was the first time that class distinctions or significant hierarchy came into widespread use, and they were maintained by force or the threat of violence. This is an important aspect of patriarchy — a social system that embraces and rewards ruthlessness and a might makes right mentality. This is distinctly different from a time when the wellbeing of the entire clan or settlement was a primary survival strategy.
