Gynocracy is a term that refers to the rule of women over men. Also known as gynocracy, gynaecocracy, gyneocracy, and gynarchy.Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam (Merriam-Webster), 1966), entries gynecocracy, gynocracy, & gynarchy.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 3d ed. 1992 ()), entries gynecocracy, gynocracy, & gynarchy.Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (N.Y.: Random House, 2d ed. 2001 ()), entries gynecocracy & gynarchy. It has been in use since the 17th century, building on the Greek word found in Aristotle and Plutarch.Liddell, Henry George, & Robert Scott, An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, for γυναικοκρατία.Liddell, Henry George, & Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, for γυ^ναικο-κρα^τέομαι. Unlike matriarchy, gynarchy is defined as women's rule rather than mothers.' It can be contrasted with Androcracy meaning rule by men.Leeuwe, Jules de, untitled comment (November 18, 1977) (emphases so in original), as a response to and with Leacock, Eleanor, Women's Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for Social Evolution, in Current Anthropology, vol. 33, no. 1, supp. Inquiry and Debate in the Human Sciences: Contributions from Current Anthropology, 1960–1990 (February, 1992 ( & E-ISSN 1537-5382)), p. 241.
History In the 1700s, Joseph-François Lafitau used the ancient Greek term to describe the organization of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.Edvard Westermarck (1921), The History of Human Marriage, Vol. 3, London: Macmillan, p. 108. Following his footsteps scholars Johann Jakob Bachofen and Lewis Morgan used the term to refer to rule by women. Morgan again used the term to refer to the Haudenosaunee but Bachofen used it as part of his evolutionary model of history.
Terminology Although the terms are synonyms, there are minute differences between them. Gynecocracy means 'women's social supremacy',Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam (Merriam-Webster), 1966), entry gynecocracy. gynaecocracy means 'government by one woman', 'female dominance', and, derogatorily, 'petticoat government', and gynocracy means 'women as the ruling class'. Gyneocracy is rarely used in modern times. In pornography and BDSM the term gynarchy is sometimes fetishized used for femdom and female-led relationship.
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