Describe patriarchy in feminist literature.

The term "patriarchy" refers to the social system in which
adult men have the most power, whether it be over their wives, daughters, even
employees.  Jane Austen explored this idea in her English novels of the late eighteenth
century, along with the closely connected European practice of primogeniture, which
referred to the right of the oldest son to inherit his parents' property, regardless of
how many sisters might have superseded him.  In novels like Pride and
Prejudice, Jane Austen satirized the obsession women had with making "a good
match" which basically meant, marrying someone with the most money possible.  Mothers
obsessed over this for their daughters, perhaps no one more so than the ridiculous
mother of Elizabeth Bennett, the protagonist of Pride and
Prejudice.  Women received a nominal education in that time because they
weren't expected to do much or acquire much--except, hopefully, a husband with some
money and/or property.