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This documentary looks at some of the root causes behind cultural atrocities and how existing matriarchal societies, whose cultural framework and belief systems not only embrace the feminine but see god as female, provide a much-needed peaceful and gender-balanced alternative to the violent, discriminatory cultures that currently dominate most of the world.

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This is the story of remarkable women who, after surviving violence, war and genocide in Africa, are rebuilding their lives and societies, forgiving the killers of their families, adopting and raising orphans, breaking taboos, and redefining what it means to be a woman in their traditional cultures.

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6 women dominated societies and their practices.

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Did you know there's a tribe where men suckle their babies and the country where every woman once downed tools for a day? To mark International Women's Day on Friday, we profile the world's matriarchies.
THE MOSUO, CHINA
Deep in south-west China lies Lugu Lake, a place known as the Kingdom of Women. Here you'll find the 40,000-strong Mosuo, one of the world's last matrilineal societies. As befits a culture with no word for 'father' or 'husband', Mosuo women do not marry. Instead, they take as many lovers as they wish, cherry-picking them from within the tribe and inviting them for secret evening trysts (usually after the men have spent all day slaughtering pigs, while females sort out household finances). Property is handed down through the female line and there's no stigma in not knowing who a child's father is. Such matriarchal utopia does have drawbacks - curious visitors have descended upon the once-isolated region under the mistaken suggestion Mosuo women offer free sex. Sadly, some of the previously peaceful villages have been overrun with hotels, casinos, karaoke and even a red-light district.
www.mosuoproject.org

THE AKA, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
The menfolk of the Aka people in Africa's Congo Basin have been described as the 'best dads in the world' with the paternally minded pygmies playing with their babies at least five times as often as men from other societies. While women hunt, the men cook. Cots are unheard of (couples never leave babies lying unattended) and if one Aka parent smacks an infant, the other views it as grounds for divorce. Most staggering of all, Aka fathers offer their nipples as pacifiers to their babies when mum isn't around. Somebody send a note to Fathers 4 Justice now...

ICELAND
For the past four years, Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index Britain is 18th), thanks to passing female-friendly laws, such as the 2010 decision to outlaw strip clubs. 'I guess men will have to get used to the idea that women are not for sale,' said prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (pictured), the world's first openly lesbian head of state, who presides over a parliament where women hold 40 per cent of seats.
The campaign for women's rights has long thrived in Iceland - on October 24, 1975, a date labelled 'women's day off', 90 per cent of the country's females refused to work, cook or look after children.
The feminist agenda was nudged even further when the government recently announced it was drafting plans to ban pornography both in print and online.

ALAPINE, ALABAMA
Across America, there are around 100 off-the-grid female-only colonies where anybody saddled with a Y chromosome is forbidden. Welcome to America's Womyn's Lands. These largely lesbian communities started life in the 1970s when a cluster of revolutionary women founded a camp on the beach in St Augustine, Florida. Today, one of the largest Womyn's Lands is found in rural Alabama, in a camp called Alapine Village. Here 13 women (most aged between 50 and 80) co-exist, working the land by day and meeting for 'community full moon circles' (activities: singing and reading poems) by night - all largely unnoticed by their Bible Belt neighbours.
www.alapine.org

SWORN VIRGINS, ALBANIA
The remote mountain villages of northern Albania have a bizarre way of appointing a head of household when there is no male heir: one daughter (usually a teenager) takes a vow of chastity before spending the rest of her life living as a man. These women cut their curly tresses, wear baggy men's clothes and develop baritone timbres before taking on jobs as shepherds or truck drivers. The system of sworn virgins has endured for 200 years and although they are far from being emancipated (some girls are forced into the role), they escape the subordination (arranged marriages, being unable to own property) that afflicts many other Albanian women. Today, sworn virgins seem to be petering out, with most over 60 years old.

MEGHALAYA, INDIA
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the hilly Indian state of Meghalaya is the rainiest place on Earth. And in its tribal populations, it also boasts one of the world's few surviving matrilineal systems - where women, rather than men, own land and property. Tradition dictates that the youngest daughter in the family inherits all the property as well as acting as caretaker of aged parents and unmarried siblings. As for the Meghalaya menfolk, a suffragette movement has sprung up, with men's right groups claiming matrilineal culture is breeding generations of gents who fall short of their potential, subsequently slipping into alcoholism and drug abuse.

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Did you know there's a tribe where men suckle their babies and the country where every woman once downed tools for a day? To mark International Women's Day on Friday, we profile the world's matriarchies

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Matriarchy Is Not The Opposite Of Patriarchy

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Matriarchy Is Not The Opposite Of Patriarchy

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Christopher Ryan, Ph.D., co-author of Sex at Dawn says, “Societies in which women's status is equal to or greater than men's tend to be characterized by less conflict, greater social harmony, and higher levels of sexual interaction.”

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Societies Where Women Rule (Literally) Do Exist - Here's How They're Different From Ours

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Existing mostly in rural areas, matriarchal societies differ from the mainstream in many ways, some rather surprising, too.

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Rebecca Lolosoli founded Umoja village as a safe haven for the region's women. Umoja, which means "unity" in Swahili, is quite literally a no man's land, and the matriarchal refuge is now home to the Samburu women who no longer want to suffer abuses, like genital mutilation and forced marriages, at the hands of men.

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The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Village

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India is a highly patriarchal country. But in the state of Meghalaya, the indigenous Khasi tribe practices matrilineal descent.

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Life in a matrilineal society | Global 3000

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India is a highly patriarchal country. But in the state of Meghalaya, the indigenous Khasi tribe practices matrilineal descent. Here in northeastern India, women rule the roost. More Global 3000: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/global-3000/s-11487

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International Academy "HAGIA" for Modern Matriarchal Studies

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International Academy "HAGIA" for Modern Matriarchal Studies

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Founded in 1986, HAGIA has dedicated itself to the study of matriarchal societies and cultures throughout history. It is the first Academy for Modern Matriarchal Studies and education is based on purely on scholarly works.

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HAGIA - International Academy for Modern Matriarchal Studies and Matriarchal Spirituality

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A family, group, or state governed by women. Matriarchies are mother-centered societies, they are based on maternal values: care-taking, nurturing, motherliness, which holds for everybody: for mothers and those who are not mothers, for women and men alike.  In these societies Heritage as well as family title is passed from the woman, and land is typically handed down from mother to daughter. In matriarchal cultures, equality means more than just a leveling of differences. Natural differences between the genders and the generations are respected and honored, but they never serve to create hierarchies, as is common in patriarchy.