Some theologies and theocracies limit or forbid women from being in civil government or public leadership or forbid them from voting, [271] effectively criticizing and forbidding matriarchy. Within none of the following religions is the respective view necessarily universally held:

Sinha Mukherjee, Sucharita (2013). "Women's Empowerment and Gender Bias in the Birth and Survival of Girls in Urban India". Feminist Economics. 19: 1–28. doi: 10.1080/13545701.2012.752312. S2CID 155056803. , citing Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar, The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization and Other Essays (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), & Agarwal, Bina, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).Some fiction caricatured the current gender hierarchy by describing an inverted matriarchal alternative without necessarily advocating for it. According to Karin Schönpflug, "Gerd Brantenberg's Egalia's Daughters is a caricature of powered gender relations which have been completely reversed, with the female sex on the top and the male sex a degraded, oppressed group"; [216] "gender inequality is expressed through power inversion" [217] and "all gender roles are reversed and women rule over a class of intimidated, effeminate men" compelled into that submissive gender role. [218] " Egalia is not a typical example of gender inequality in the sense that a vision of a desirable matriarchy is created; Egalia is more a caricature of male hegemony by twisting gender hierarchy but not really offering a 'better world. '" [218] [219] a b George-Kanentiio, Doug, Iroquois Culture & Commentary (New Mexico: Clear Light Publishers, 2000), pp.53–55. Cucuteni–Trypillia culture has been frequently discussed as a matriarchal society before its overthrow by the patriarchy, [67] including its goddess art, connecting the moon, menstrual cycles, agricultural seasons, and life and death. Bebel, August, Die Frau und der Sozialismus. Als Beitrag zur Emanzipation unserer Gesellschaft, bearbeitet und kommentiert von Monika Seifert (Stuttgart: Dietz, 1974 (1st published 1879)), p.63.

Maybe my teenage militarism was a preview of what’s to come, but it took me until this year to really decide, you know, being a feminist is frankly not enough anymore. At 31, I am casting my official support for Female Supremacy. Rohrlich (1977), p.36 and see p.37 ("Minoan matriarchate" (subquoting, at p.37 n.7, Thomson, George, The Prehistoric Aegean (N.Y.: Citadel Press, 1965), p.450)), Baruch, Elaine Hoffman, Introduction, in Pt. Four ( Visions of Utopia), in Rohrlich (1984), p.207 ("matriarchal societies, particularly Minoan Crete"), and Rohrlich (1984), p.6 ("the Minoan matriarchy" & "Minoan Crete"). a b c Karimi, Faith (January 30, 2019). "She grew up in a community where women rule and men are banned". CNN. Goettner-Abendroth (2009b), p.25 and see p.24 and, in Goettner-Abendroth (2009a), Introduction& pts. I & VIII Biology as a ground for holding either males or females superior over the other has been criticized as invalid, such as by Andrea Dworkin [231] and by Robin Morgan. [232] A claim that women have unique characteristics that prevent women's assimilation with men has been apparently rejected by Ti-Grace Atkinson. [233] On the other hand, not all advocates based their arguments on biology or essentialism.Matriarchy has often been presented as negative, in contrast to patriarchy as natural and inevitable for society, and thus that matriarchy is hopeless. Love and Shanklin wrote: a b Weisberg, D. Kelly, ed., Applications of Feminist Legal Theory to Women's Lives: Sex, Violence, Work, and Reproduction (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996 ( ISBN 1-56639-423-6)), p.9 ("women must organize against patriarchy as a class") but see p.11 ("some radical feminists... opt... for anarchistic, violent methods"). Friedrich Engels, in 1884, claimed that, in the earliest stages of human social development, there was group marriage and that therefore paternity was disputable, whereas maternity was not, so that a family could be traced only through the female line. This was a materialist interpretation of Bachofen's Mutterrecht. [107] [108] Engels speculated that the domestication of animals increased material wealth, which was claimed by men. [ citation needed] Engels said that men wanted to control women to use as laborers and to pass on wealth to their children, requiring monogamy; [ citation needed] as patriarchy rose, women's status declined until they became mere objects in the exchange trade between men, causing the global defeat of the female sex [109] and the rise of individualism and competition. [110] According to Eller, Engels may have been influenced with respect to women's status by August Bebel, [111] according to whom matriarchy naturally resulted in communism, while patriarchy was characterized by exploitation. [112] The fantasy of Female Supremacy (are you relieved that I’m saying fantasy? Or maybe disappointed?) is a useful meditation of the imaginative power of the Reversal, as in the system of Tarot.