Feminist theorists of the state have documented the connection between ("democratic") state formation (expanding political participation for propertied males) and the "emergence of a relatively nuclearized household/family unit" (constraining political participation for women as a class).127 That is, "the family" - and women's subordination within it - does not precede but is historically constituted by consolida- dons of state power. States institutionalize patriarchal households simultaneously as the basis for citizenship claims and as the basic socioeconomic unit (facilitating labor mobilization, resource extraction, conscription for military and public works service, regulation of property - including women - and legal control more generally). Thus, although patriarchal customs precede state formation, it is with the state that patriarchal relations are institutionalized - the exploitation of women as a sexual class is here backed by the coercive power of the state.128 We here review the interweaving changes imposed by state formation and their implications for gender hierarchy. All of the following interact in establishing and "naturalizing" this patriarchal oppression. As noted above, in the conflict between reproduction of the kin community and emerging class relations, women's dual capacity (for productive and reproductive labor) is abstracted from their multifaceted identities in kin group relations; women lose kin claims to property, become transmitters of property, and are treated as property themselves. The establishment of relatively nuclear, household/family units under individual patriarchal control renders women more vulnerable to and dependent upon fathers and husbands, while weakening their access to countervailing power and support from larger kin networks. "What was once the realm of total social reproduc- tion" in kin communities129 is shunted into individual household structures and assigned to women; male abdication of responsibility for this socially necessary labor is hereby institutionalized and additionally legitimized by reference to separate, gender-differentiated spheres.
Feminist theorists of the state have documented the connection between ("democratic") formation (expanding political participation for propertied males and the "emergence of a relatively nuclearized household/family unit" (constraining political participation for women the family" - and women's subordination within it - does not precede but is historically constituted by consolida- dons of state power although patriarchal customs precede state formation, it is with the state that patriarchal relations are institutionalized - women lose kin claims to property, become transmitters of property, and are treated as property themselves The establishment of nuclear, household/family units under individual patriarchal control renders women more vulnerable to and dependent upon fathers and husbands, while weakening their access to countervailing power and support from larger kin networks