It does but
1. Things are changing very rapidly. Patriarchy is weaker than it was 20 years ago or even 10 years ago.
2. The situation is much MUCH more complex than feminism makes it out to be. While lower class men are more likely to perpetuate sexism than upper class men, lower class men also have their own issues which leave them unable to benefit from patriarchy. And this isn’t to say upper class men are inherently progressive, because they perpetuate sexism too but are much better at hiding it.
3. Upper class women have the means to cancel out a lot of the negative effects of patriarchy. They can go to private schools, go to university, and have a career which will allow them to put off marriage until they’re ready, and will make them more likely to marry a progressive man.
So basically the only men who benefit from patriarchy are wealthy and/or powerful men, and most Indian men are neither.
This is actually super interesting. What’s it like, generally speaking, for say middle class women in India on a day to day basis?
To be honest I can’t really speak on that because I’m not middle class. However I can speak about my classmates who are.
Middle class women have more rights than lower class women, but they still have to deal with issues especially when they get older.
Most of them feel like they can’t sustain themselves economically if they’re single, and are getting married only for that reason. They’ve told me that I’m lucky I come from a place of economic privilege and thus have the choice of whether to marry or stay single.
I’d prefer to not enter a relationship because of messy personal reasons, but this is an example of patriarchy getting cancelled out by economic status. My middle class classmates, who may have had even worse family situations than I did, will still have to get married regardless of their personal beliefs because otherwise they can’t be financially secure.
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