Bargaining with Absent Men: Institutional Masculinity and the Persistence of Patriarchal Power

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 6) Gender, Sexuality, and Masculinities

Abstract

How does patriarchy persist when men are absent from households, labor markets, and governance? Classic theories of patriarchal bargaining assume women negotiate with male authorities who control resources and enforce compliance, Yet, historical and contemporary contexts marked by male absence – due to war, migration, incarceration, or economic marginalization – demonstrate that gender hierarchy often endures.

This paper introduces the concept of “bargaining with absent men,” defined as negotiation with masculinized institutional logics and imagined patriarchal figures rather than with individual male actors. Drawing on gender structure theory, institutional analyses of masculinity, and cultural sociology, the paper argues that patriarchy persists not only as an institutional formation but also as a symbolic order that renders male authority imaginable, legitimate, and administratively actionable even in men’s absence. A historical case study of postwar Paraguay demonstrates how these mechanisms operate under conditions of extreme demographic disruption.

Author

• Larissa Aiko Morikawa, Johns Hopkins University