Planet Patriarchy

In 1995, the UN vowed to advance ‘equality, development and peace for all women, everywhere.’ Instead, in the Beijing Declaration’s thirtieth anniversary year, the world is lurching dangerously away from such democratic and progressive ideals—reinventing nationalist identities based on toxic-masculine values, and embracing economic policies against women’s interests. This reality exists in every type of country. Why does oppression, rather than feminism, still dominate our world?

This book reveals patriarchy’s many faces in the age of globalisation, exploring the political systems and cultures of eight very different societies. It takes readers from the extraordinary anti-capitalist women’s revolution in Kurdistan to the theocracies of Islamic State and Saudi Arabia; from China’s one-party state to Iceland’s democracy; and to South Africa, Russia and El Salvador—all radically changed since the fall of apartheid, communism and military dictatorship respectively.

Despite patriarchy’s remarkable shapeshifting powers to undermine feminist solidarity, Planet Patriarchy is equally a story of sisterhood and resistance, interviewing defenders of women’s rights about their cause and their country. Gender inequality endures, everywhere—but so does feminism. Campbell and Gupta’s fascinating discoveries show us how this timeless showdown is taking shape in, and being shaped by, the systems we live under today.