According to Delphy and Leonard, why does the family help sustain patriarchy?

• A. Men control finances
• B. The state enforces patriarchy
• C. Men use women's unpaid labour and benefit from it
• D. Women choose to stay at home

Answer: (C)

The main idea is that the family helps keep patriarchy going by making women's unpaid domestic labour essential and, in effect, valuable to men. Delphy and Leonard argue that women do the housework and caring work without pay, and the family structure is organized so this labour supports the male breadwinner and keeps men in a dominant position. Because that unpaid labour is produced and reproduced within the family, men benefit from it and patriarchy is maintained without needing formal coercion.

So, the option that describes men using women's unpaid labour and benefiting from it matches this analysis precisely. It captures the idea that the economic value of women’s domestic work is appropriated within the family system, reinforcing gender inequality.

Other options miss the core mechanism. The state enforcing patriarchy points to external power beyond the family, whereas Delphy and Leonard focus on the family as the primary site where exploitation of women’s labour occurs. The idea that men control finances shifts attention to money management more broadly but doesn’t explain why the labour itself is unpaid, which is central to their argument. The notion that women choose to stay at home treats the arrangement as a free, individual choice rather than a structure shaped by patriarchy that channels and values unpaid domestic work.