How to Use patriarchal in a Sentence

patriarchal

adjective
  • And some of the patriarchal bias is even my own.
    — Allaire Nuss, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The more patriarchal the culture, the more a wife could get away with.
    — TIME, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The evacuees ranged in age from babies in arms to patriarchal old men.
    — sandiegouniontribune.com, 8 Apr. 2018
  • Samantha Fish has kicked down the door of the patriarchal blues club.
    — Bill Brownlee, kansascity.com, 23 May 2017
  • But women are much more than victims in this patriarchal regime.
    — Alainna Liloia, The Conversation, 8 Aug. 2019
  • And there’s not a patriarchal kind of energy to it.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 25 Mar. 2026
  • That’s an old, patriarchal way of thinking about tax households.
    — Ginny Hogan, The New Yorker, 10 Dec. 2021
  • Hinako battles not just against her own mind, but with the rigid patriarchal norms and pressures of the era.
    — Vincent Acovino, NPR, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Now, Swift hopes to inspire women to fight their wealth in a patriarchal world.
    — Rebecca Aizin, People.com, 9 Oct. 2024
  • In our complex and patriarchal society, of course, things are rarely that black and white.
    — Andrea Bartz, Marie Claire, 25 Feb. 2019
  • Now, Swift hopes to inspire women to fight for their wealth in a patriarchal world.
    — Rebecca Aizin, People.com, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Andy looks across the water at a patriarchal figure, who stares back, deadeyed.
    — Glenn Kenny, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2018
  • But the type of masculinity required to make it in a patriarchal world comes with a cost.
    — Elissa Strauss, CNN, 14 June 2024
  • Yet, many of the small advancements for women in the patriarchal faith came in the wake of that movement.
    — Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Nov. 2022
  • The prying eyes of a patriarchal society see her as both victim and prey.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 4 June 2024
  • Yet the tango was—and in certain ways, still is—shaped by misogyny and patriarchal tropes.
    — Charis McGowan, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Aug. 2024
  • What happened to the other star reporters in these patriarchal decades after the war?
    — Literary Hub, 18 Dec. 2025
  • The patriarchal society feeds on the ashes of these women and girls.
    — Valentina Pop, WSJ, 4 Mar. 2021
  • As a nun in that extremely patriarchal era, how does a woman gain some semblance of agency?
    — Jeff Ewing, Forbes, 13 Oct. 2021
  • In friendship amongst women, sometimes what comes in the middle of it is patriarchal values.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 22 May 2024
  • There are people critical of us that want to reduce our voice and use patriarchal messaging to do that.
    — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 30 Sep. 2025
  • In other words, a woman taking her own picture on her own terms is not enough to disrupt the patriarchal status quo.
    — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 27 Nov. 2024
  • But there is a younger generation now that sees the regime and its patriarchal society as the problem.
    — Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Nov. 2022
  • And second, all of the countries are patriarchal, in varying degrees.
    — Brian Guiducci, Teen Vogue, 22 Sep. 2017
  • But this, Singhal notes, is just the male retelling of the story, shaped by centuries of patriarchal values.
    — Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, 7 Jan. 2020
  • His telling of the story is the result of his refusal, as a man, of his patriarchal inheritance.
    — Nina Mesfin, New Yorker, 7 June 2026
  • The change from a patriarchal rule to a true balance between feminine and masculine is in process.
    — Cameron Bird, Vogue, 7 Jan. 2018
  • The minister wearing that dress rubbed people who hold those patriarchal values the wrong way, both men and women alike.
    — Essence, 5 Jan. 2026
  • These are women who have been both emboldened and damaged by the patriarchal structure of the Black church.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Essence, 25 Jan. 2022
  • Adding a child to a partnership really turns up the heat on every kind of patriarchal force that’s acting on a woman.
    — Thessaly La Force, Vogue, 7 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'patriarchal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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