Patriarchy

I found a very useful passage in regard to women's liberation and patriarchy in the book
"Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

from page 286 begin quote from second paragraph:
"I have no nostalgia for the patriarchy, please believe me. But what I have come to realize is that, when that patriarchic system was (rightfully) dismantled, it was not necessarily replaced by another form of protection. What I mean is-- I never thought to ask a suitor the same challenging questions my father might have asked him, in a different age. I have given myself away in love many times, merely for the sake of love. And I've given away the farm sometimes in the process. If I am to truly become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian. Famously, Gloria Steinem once advised women that they should strive to become like the men they had always wanted to marry. What I've only recently realized is that I not only have to become my own husband, but I need to be my own father, too. And this is why I sent myself to bed that night alone. Because I felt it was too soon for me to be receiving a gentleman suitor." end quote.

I found this a very wise passage that was even more useful because it came from a highly educated and most excellent female writer in her mid 30s having already been married and divorced once. The wisdom of this passage says volumes about the problem of "throwing the baby out with the bath water" in regard to women's liberation since the 1960s.