What global issue is evident here? Is there anything surprising about this? Do our assumptions of patriarchy’s power sometimes elide what’s not so obvious?
You could look at the role of Esty’s aunt or mother in law here. Pick a specific still from the series to analyse.
The global issue of parthiarchy is still prevelant here, though matriarchy can be more explicitly seen here.
More often than not, it is the issue of men opressing women and stripping them of their rights and dignity. However, in this case, it is the women that are opressing each other. Though one can say the reason behind this is because men impose and enforce these rules against women on each other, it is important to consider that women still follow these rules.
One reason that Deborah felt this way was because of the treatment she received when she was not able to consummate with her husband for a long time. The problem of patriarchy can be seen when Yankee forces her to have sex with him, both to pleasure him and to create a family. This stripped Esty of her freedom as she was forced into carrying a child at the expense of her freedom and pleasure. However, women can very much be seen as the issue as well. Deborah states that she felt extremely uncomfortable that she did not know who knew about her personal issue with her husband. She also feels that her step-mother pressuring her to consummate and the stress she felt from her inability to do so were one of the worst parts of the experience.
We often assume that men create and problems for women and are the root of all evil, which can be true sometimes. But what we fail to see is that women can also sometimes be the problem, because they help perpetuate the system without the knowledge that they are doing so.