From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmatriarchyma‧tri‧ar‧chy /ˈmeɪtriɑːki $ -ɑːr-/ noun (plural matriarchies) [countable, uncountable] 1 SSWa social system in which the oldest woman controls a family and its possessions → patriarchy2 SSWa society in which women hold all the power → patriarchy
Examples from the Corpus
matriarchy• He found no evidence that a matriarchy had ever existed or is in any way emerging today.• In particular he scrutinized every report of an alleged matriarchy, where women were said to hold political power.• But Fromm interprets it as a conflict between matriarchy and patriarchy.• The idea apparently stems from that old belief in matriarchy as the only alternative to patriarchy.• This is the matriarchy telling its own story.• It has been fashionable in the last twenty years to suggest that there was in ancient history a utopian matriarchy. 