Patriarchy is a social system, and India is one of the most patriarchal cultures in the world. So you can pretend it doesn't have much impact, but that is BS.
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.
Just because you didn't ask to be born into a more privileged class of people doesn't mean that you haven't benefited from that. Stop whining about how it's not your fault and that men have actually been hurt worse and start participating in creating social systems that are more equitable, egalitarian, gentle, pro-social, and humanistic so that we all can have a better world.
