It absolutely does. Patriarchy is the sole reason that men are forced into these Man Box norms such as artificially suppressing emotions (which has nothing to do with the philosophy of Stoicism), or that so many Western cultures believe in a gender binary where the opposite of being a man is a woman (rather than there being 3 to 5 genders as in many indigenous cultures and others where the opposite of man is boy).
"This is what the term patriarchy actually refers to from a social science perspective — a male-dominated social hierarchy established and maintained through intimidation, coercion, violence, and fear. The war chieftains who are the most violent and most ruthless rise to power and prestige, and an ethos of Might Makes Right prevails. Culture becomes more authoritarian and much more hierarchical and stratified. Women and weaker men are at the mercy of the domination and violence of the stronger men. For the first time in human history, some people count and other people don’t."
Just because you don't know the meaning of the term patriarchy doesn't mean it doesn't exist or isn't well defined.
Of course there's nothing wrong with any particular expression of gender - but patriarchy demands and tries to police people into binary rules which may or may not be natural for that person. Also, there are societies - even Western societies - that have less restrictive and harmful norms and a lot more egalitarian ideals.
Have women lost power in the home? Because every study I read points out that despite most women working outside the home, women still do the overwhelming majority of child, home, and elder care. And if they are raising children alone, they certainly haven't lost any power. I think the more pertinent question is why there is still so much open discrimination against women, such rampant sexual violence, and physical abuse -often perpetrated by the men who are in her family, or who are otherwise “close” to her. That is one of the primary manifestations of patriarchy that should be obvious to everyone who is paying even the slightest bit of attention.
Ultimately, where do our gender ideas and, more specifically, our ideas about manhood come from? It’s not like there was a board of directors of men who decided the rules of manliness and femininity. Oh wait, there was — from groups of religious authorities, to traditionally all-male government bodies, to the clubs of men who invented modern sports culture around the beginning of the twentieth century. These groups of men created, codified, and justified the rules governing manhood and womanhood (and made sure that those who broke them were penalized). [something that is still taking place today]
Simply put, our ideals about manhood emerge from and reinforce the realities of patriarchy, a male-dominated society.
Kaufman, Michael. The Time Has Come (p. 50). Catapult. Kindle Edition.
In the United States, up until just a few decades ago, there were laws that actively prevented both women and Blacks from having equal access to opportunity. Even though these laws are now defunct, the beliefs and traditional power dynamics they enshrined are not necessarily entirely gone. They linger on in our collective subconscious as well as the structural and institutional aspects of our culture.
Most people in America, even those who are close to the apex of the dominance hierarchy, are typically not oppressing others out of conscious malice. Some are, to be sure, but the vast majority of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, etc., comes out of the subconscious desire to adhere to the patriarchal status quo. It’s the social system that we’ve all been indoctrinated into since birth, and through it we’ve been taught that if we don’t win, we lose — that it’s zero-sum world.
