Matriarchy is a stage in the development of human society when the status of women was very high. Chronologically, this period is attributed to the primitive communal system, to the era of clans, tribes and tribal unions. A number of scientists believe that the role of women has increased in connection with the initial stage in the development of the culture of agriculture and the cult of fertility, in which the basis of religious beliefs was the belief in the ancestor of the family - the mother goddess.
But many studies prove the high status of women in many ancient pastoralist tribes. The epics of the steppe peoples tell about women warriors, women riders. One of the most famous ancient Greek myths is the legend of the Amazons.
But in fairness, it must be said that many historians speak out categorically against the definition of matriarchy as a social system in which all women had power over all men. There is no history of societies where women would be publicly or legally vested with power greater than that of men.
Currently, scientists - ethnographers, anthropologists - are exploring matriarchal societies on distant islands, in the African savannah, denying the possibility of such a existence in modern European civilization.
Be that as it may, matriarchy would have long remained the subject of exclusively scientific controversy, if not for the deep concern of modern men about their position in society. Increasingly, articles speak of modern matriarchy.
Until now, the common man knew matriarchy from the lessons of history, its meaning boiled down to one thing: "women were in charge." The term sank deeply into the soul of adolescents, only the very lazy did not know it. In everyday life, it is often used with a touch of irony in relation to the family, where the wife and mother rule the way of life. But, by definition, it was believed that matriarchy is a phenomenon of the very distant past of mankind.
Now more and more harsh statements are being heard that feminism - a battle for women's rights at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, has finally won and passed into a new stage - matriarchy. The list of its features has also expanded: discrimination against men (a jackhammer and duties - for men, flowers and privileges - for women), free marriage (which is consistently called a group marriage due to divorce), the ability to solve maternity issues by the woman herself (abortion), the cult of the mother (but not father).
If we proceed from the definition of matriarchy as a form of social structure, where political and family power belongs to women, then the analysis of modern society, to some extent, will confirm the assertion of some radical sociologists and political scientists that European society is a matriarchal society. But only to some extent. To call this phenomenon “one of the reasons for the death of Western society” is too harsh a statement. It is not fair to blame some women for the problems of modern society, and it is still far from their sovereignty in the world.