Basic Trope: A state or society where women are in positions of power and are disproportionately privileged compared to men.
- Straight: In Troperia, women hold all positions of political power and are the heads of their households; men are second-class citizens.
- Exaggerated: In Troperia, all men are the literal slaves of women with no rights whatsoever.
- Downplayed: A state or society where women are afforded most of the social privileges and esteem, though highly-privileged males are not unheard of.
- Justified:
- Because of a single catastrophic event resulting in the extinction of the male population or the mass-death of the world's leadership (remember, most politicians are male), the women are forced to pick up where the menfolk left off. Can lead to all nations' militaries being all-female, law-enforcement agencies' manpower comprising only women, and virtually all big companies being female-run.
- Women grew tired of being treated like second-class citizens in general, so they staged a rebellion where they ousted the male leaders in power and replaced them, resulting in a society that favored women over men. Now the powerless men would experience what being a woman in a patriarchal society is like.
- It is generally believed that Women Are Wiser, stronger, and more powerful than the men, which makes them more worthy of leadership positions.
- That's just how their species/society formed to begin with.
- Inverted: A matriarchy where women occupy positions of power, but where men are held in higher esteem than the women are.
- Gender-Inverted: Patriarchy.
- Subverted:
- A society that appears matriarchal on the surface, but a secret group of men working in certain places in the government turn out to be the real leaders. They use female figureheads in public to gain respect from the other women and/or protect themselves from retribution for being male leaders in a female-led society.
- Alternatively, a society that has matriarchal origins grows steadily more gender-neutral over the decades as reforms are passed and public attitudes change. Now men are likely to be found in high positions that were once restricted to women.
- Double Subverted:
- The women take over in earnest.
- The men in power leave their positions, whether willingly or not, and are replaced by women.
- Parodied: Men are forced to wear frilly apron dresses and their hair in Girlish Pigtails, contrasted with comically out-of-place facial hair, and have to do all the domestic chores whilst their womenfolk, dressed in dominatrix-style outfits, stand over them with whips. (This is Played for Laughs rather than for the Rule of Sexy.) Meanwhile, the Queen's Requisite Royal Regalia is unsubtly heavy on the bee symbolism.
- Zig-Zagged: In Troperia, women own property, which is passed on from mother to daughter, rule their households with an iron fist, and are the only ones allowed to hold royal or aristocratic titles. But men are war leaders, and it's a constitutional monarchy where significant political power is held by a (partially) elected parliament of both sexes- still, there's never been a male Prime Minister, there has to be a strictly-enforced quota of male MPs to ensure male representation, and whilst women can vote from age 18, only men over 30 can vote. The priesthood may be male or female depending upon the gender of the god in question, and other influential roles are performed by either men or women depending on whatever traditional gender roles are normative in that society.
- Averted:
- Women aren't deemed a priori worthier to run a society than men.
- Troperians are a One-Gender Race that has no concept of male or female.
- Enforced:
- The story is being written for a publisher of feminist literature which wants either Feminist Fantasy type works (Enlightened Matriarchy) or critiquing patriarchal norms (Patriarchy Flip of a "showing men what sexism looks like" sort).
- The producers, publishers etc. want a story which satirizes (or what they think satirizes) feminism (Straw Matriarchy) or gender roles in general (Patriarchy Flip or possibly Original Matriarchy).
- The publisher specializes in erotic fiction particularly with a femdom bent. (Sexy Matriarchy)
- Lampshaded: "Wow, the women run everything here."
- Invoked: A Straw Feminist group ignites a revolution to overthrow the male rulers of Troperia and put women in charge, on the grounds that women can run things much better than men.
- Exploited: Alice and Bob, a not-so-happily married couple, are on holiday in Troperia. Alice uses the fact that women are in charge there to get her own back on Bob, who thinks the man should be in charge.
- Defied: Troperia is set up as a patriarchy or else on principles of active sex equality.
- Discussed: "Patriarchy was a lie all along."
- Conversed: "And I thought that women were supposed to be passive."
- Deconstructed: The matriarchal society touts itself as "better" than a patriarchal one because supposedly Women Are Wiser, but the often degrading treatment of men is actually a form of systemic misandry, which makes the matriarchal society no different than a patriarchal one.
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: The main character is Bob, who faces the same or similiar issues and disadvantages that women in the real world face.
Back to Matriarchy and keep women's right to lead in mind.
