how can patriarchy be challenged?

Move out and support yourself financially.

The patriarchy is a very tricky thing to fight. Witchcraft and wizardry keeps the normal ones from seeing what the enlightened can.

In order to challenge the patriarchy, you must gather a party of at least three and no more than six. You will find an old, rustic man sporting worn iron armor. He will speak of a sword, one that can kill what most swords cannot. The mighty Sword Of Guerd. You follow the old man's direction to find a cave that tunnels downward. You must all go down, one by one. Eventually, you will find a rusted sheath, with a heavier than usual weight. THe sword is in this. (The sword itself is invisible, mind you.) Once you get the sword, holding it with both hands, go to a busy intersection and start swinging it around. Spinning is optional. After a couple of hours, a portal should form. Jump in it, but be careful. The lava is hot.

Eventually, you will see a large castle, made out of black bricks, which you must enter. The statues of black knights and gargoyles will turn their heads and stare, as you pass through the hallways. They will probably let you through... probably. Keep going, following the trail of oppression. There will be an old, fat man there waiting with a crown and fluffy cape. Taking out the sword, you and all your teammates must ceremoniously charge in a unified postion. Make sure you are in the front and center, though. Sporting a cocky smirk, he will say, in a warped and familiar voice, "...Are you alright?" You wake up to find yourself on the floor, with your head and waist pounding.

Moral of the story: The patriarchy is a figment of your imagination. There are more meaningful things you can do with your life.

With extreme care.

Accept no watering down of the idea that women receive extra burdens, but reject stupid group-identity crap.

The privilege "theory" poisoned pill slides down real easy, and you'd be amazed how fast that viewpoint turns into "a homeless man's boots aren't as important as a middle class woman's self esteem."

Women's liberation is entwined with class. Not keeping that fact front and center leads to ignoring or denigrating others' oppression at best, and actively adding to it at worst.

Unless you define women's liberation as Clinton's or Palin's right to give drone kill orders, to be blunt, you can't beat the sexist power structure without working class and poor men. You need us. And why should I help you fight the whipmaster when you deny the stripes on MY back?

And we need you. Most women are workers. Simple class arithmetic says any resistance to the Big Money Boys that doesn't include MOST women will get its little rebel @$$ kicked. So women's issues MUST be faced by working class men.

We need each other. Desperately. Fight CAREFULLY, keeping that in mind, BUT KEEP FIGHTING.

You can rid a country of it's patriarchy by doing the following:

Give the women the same right to vote as men.

Allow women to run for public office.

Allow women to own land

Allow women to own businesses and even become CEOs if they wish and are qualified.

~

Assuming it actually existed, why would you want to?

But more importantly, what would you replace it with? A Matriarchy? How is replacing one form of "oppression" with another one any good?

Cannot challenge what no longer exist, it's gone now... let it go.