Lisa Wade
A patriarchal bargain is a decision to accept gender rules that disadvantage women in exchange for whatever power one can wrest from the system. It is an individual strategy designed to manipulate the system to one’s best advantage, but one that leaves the system itself intact. Don’t be too quick to judge; nearly 100% of women do this to some degree. But once women appear to have acquiesced to the idea that their bodies are public property, their bodies are treated as public property. Others, then, feel that they have the right to comment on, evaluate, and even control their bodies. This is why the bargain is patriarchal.
