No known society has ever had women controlling military and political power

Evidence

In both hunter-gatherer and early agricultural societies, while women contributed substantially to the subsistence of the group by frequently controlling and collecting the essentials for survival, there is no known society in which women, as a group, have had control over the political life of the community, the community’s interaction with outgroups, or control over the technology and practice of warfare, arguably the ultimate arbiter of political power. While some scholars have argued that matriarchy is the foundation of human society (see e.g., Bachofen, Gimbutas), most anthropologists and social historians dispute this claim. Although there are several known examples of matrilineal societies (i.e., descent traced through the family of the mother), matrilocal or uxorilocal societies (i.e., newly married couples residing with the wife’s kin), and societies in which women have near economic parity with men (Murdock, 1949), there are no known examples of matriarchal societies (i.e., where women, as a group, control the political and military authority within the society; see Busch, 1990; Collier & Yanagisako, 1987; Keegan, 1993). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3174

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that no matriarchy has ever existed is contested and worth probing — what counts as matriarchy, and is the record biased by who writes it?
• DEFINE: Cleanly distinguishes matrilineal, matrilocal, and matriarchal — three commonly conflated concepts.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3174