The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide

by Valerie M. Hudson, Donna Lee Bowen, Perpetua Lynne Nielsen

Global history records an astonishing variety of forms of social organization. Yet almost universally, males subordinate females. How does the relationship between men and women shape the wider political order? The First Political Order is a groundbreaking demonstration that the persistent and systematic subordination of women underlies all other institutions, with wide-ranging implications for global security and development.

Incorporating research findings spanning a variety of social science disciplines and comprehensive empirical data detailing the status of women around the globe, the book shows that female subordination functions almost as a curse upon nations. A society’s choice to subjugate women has significant negative worse governance, worse conflict, worse stability, worse economic performance, worse food security, worse health, worse demographic problems, worse environmental protection, and worse social progress. Yet despite the pervasive power of social and political structures that subordinate women, history―and the data―reveal possibilities for progress. The First Political Order shows that when steps are taken to reduce the hold of inequitable laws, customs, and practices, outcomes for all improve. It offers a new paradigm for understanding insecurity, instability, autocracy, and violence, explaining what the international community can do now to promote more equitable relations between men and women and, thereby, security and peace. With comprehensive empirical evidence of the wide-ranging harm of subjugating women, it is an important book for security scholars, social scientists, policy makers, historians, and advocates for women worldwide.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Gender, Womens, Social Justice, History, Politics

616 pages, Hardcover

Published March 17, 2020

About the author

Valerie M. Hudson (born 1958) is a professor of political science at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University as of January 2012. Prior to coming to Texas A&M, Hudson was a professor of political science at Brigham Young University for 24 years. She is most noted for having co-authored the book Bare Branches about the negative effects of China's overabundance of males.

Hudson was born in Washington, D.C.. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1971. Prior to that she had been a Roman Catholic. Hudson received her bachelor's degree from BYU and her master's and Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

While a doctoral candidate, Hudson taught for three years at Otterbein University, and after receiving her Ph.D., was a visiting professor at Northwestern University and then Rutgers University . In 1987 she joined the faculty of BYU. Hudson served as Associate Director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies for eight years, in which capacity she directed the graduate program.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

The central thesis of this book is that there are a large set of countries in the world under the effect of a Syndrome wherein an absence of rights for women, patrilineality, and tribal relations dominate and decrease the quality of life for the entire society. Broadly speaking, they describe a cycle via which an absence of rights for women decreases their societal value, which gives more societal responsibility to men which again decreases the value of women. At the same time, an increased reliance on male power (esp in violent societies) causes men to band together in male lineages, thereby taking away power from women thereby decreasing their value in society and structuring the social order around strictly patrilineal clans. The authors conduct an extensive analysis of this syndrome and convincingly find that it negatively correlates with many diverse societal outcomes, such as with a less stable society, lower economic achievement, lower levels of societal education, and many more. Broadly speaking, disempowering women tends to disenfranchise half the population and put the power in the hands of patrilinal clans, which has a diverse set of negative consequences for society.

I’ll be honest, I came into this book very skeptical of the conclusions drawn by the authors since they seem a little simplistic (in effect, “feminism = good”), and a little too politically convenient. However, it’s really hard to argue with this body of work and after pouring over the included statistics and trying to find glaring holes of the types frequently plaguing the stats of sociological studies, after a point I conceded defeat and could only conclude that the analysis was done by talented statisticians acting in good faith, properly critical of their own analysis and double checking themselves at every step. The broad conclusion - that the patrilinal Syndrome is negatively correlated with a diversity of societal benefits - feels sound and the authors should be applauded for their work. The causal effects described by the authors are less convincing at times, however tracing out sociological effects through history is admittedly a nearly editorial activity in all cases, so this can’t be held too harshly against them. On top of this, the historical analysis in several of the chapters is full of interesting and specific examples which makes them worth reading nonetheless. The book concludes with a very interesting analysis on which specific core symptoms of the patrilineal effects on society can be modified/mitigated as a matter of policy in practice, along with descriptions of historical examples whereby governments enacted these policies and their results.

This book is an extremely important work in many senses, however one should also be clear on what it is not - it is not a casual book for general readership. The book does use complex language and contains pretty detailed statistical analysis. If anything, it reads like an extended multi part research paper, with a full half of the book dedicated to appendices, references, graphs, statistics, and tables. These can be easily skimmed or omitted, however the overall language itself is also frequently dense, drawing on many references and citations. Personally I found it a relatively slow read. Additionally I feel that some of the descriptive sections which do not contain specific examples could have been significantly shortened. In my opinion, there are several chapters in the book which can or should be skimmed when read in a non-academic context. If you are a non-academic reader and feel that you may take a long time to get through this academic book, then in all honesty I would suggest spending that same time on reading another book where you will get more informational bang for the buck, so to speak, per brain cell + hour invested. In particular, I found that “The WEIRDest People in the World”, while also being academically cerebral, has a generally larger bang for the mental buck, albeit it describes a broad diversity of inter societal effects rather than the laser focus on the position of women in the world presented in this book.

So, keeping in mind what the book is not (it is not a casual read), this book does deserve five stars for being what it is - an excellent review of the broad symptoms of patrilineality along with ideas on how it may have come into being, an in depth and honest statistical analysis of its effects along with ideas on how these may be mitigated by policy, and finally it is an excellent starting point full of detailed references for any student or researcher looking to further examine these effects.

Honestly I am surprised that this book has not gotten more attention.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains why the world is such a mess and what we could and should do about it. The authors have done a well-researched study of most of the countries in the world and show how the subordination of women leads, not just to problems in homes, but to problems in society with national security and the way governments and societies develop and unravel. This is truly an eye-opener and rings so true. It should be required reading. (I skipped the chapter on the methodology of the study--chapter 7--and it doesn't seem to have undermined my reading.) So well done.

[Michele R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This exhaustingly researched book unequivocally proves that inequality & violence in the “first political order—“ that being the relationship between men & women in the home—produces violence & instability within a culture/nation. The hard evidence that is documented makes me weep for the human family. Equality & kindness at home = equality & peace in the nation.

[Christian Oltra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro muy interesante sobre la dominación de la mujer en las sociedades tradicionales, el "síndrome patrilineal" y sus efectos sobre la seguridad y el bienestar de las sociedades. Está basado en una investigación sólida comparada sobre la organización patrilineal en las distintas sociedades del mundo, así como en hallazgos históricos, sociológicos y antropológicos sobre la organización patrilineal de la familia y la vida social. He escrito una reseña más amplia en: https://sinergia-christian.blogspot.c...

[Paul Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The studies and insight provided in this book rate a 5 as it very convincingly proves how countries that subjugate women function more poorly than those that don’t. This book has an extreme amount of detail that parts were a slog to get through, which I why I only gave a 4 rating overall.

[Nitin Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 6 chapters are full of fantastic insights rooted in biology and culture. The rest of the book is mired in ideology and wishful thinking. The insights make it a worthwhile read as long as you can hold your nose.

[Spellsies · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was unbelievably interesting. The authors’ research is fantastic and presented in the simplest possible way. With that being said, this book is not for the faint of heart. It is approximately 375 of very dense social science writing. While these authors are extremely good writers the text is very dense. As a sociology student, this was not outside of my wheelhouse, but without the appropriate skills, reading this book could be soul crushing.

From beginning to end this book is very interesting, but I found the first two sections the most interesting. In these sections, the scene is set for the rest of the book using empirical data. The authors do a particularly good job of identifying something that most people are vaguely aware of and really illuminating how severe the problem is.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is familiar with reading social science writing or has an interest in expanding their knowledge of global inequality and using that knowledge to be a better researcher, advocate, or activist.