Is this enough to start a story?

[Manyana]

I don't know if this will turn political, but please don't be too political on this. AND NO. I DON'T WANT ANY BOOK SUGGESTIONS WITH SIMILAR "PLOT"

Is this enough "foundation" for a story to be build up? Is there a clear difference of roles in both sex? What can be improved on? What certain rules or norms will there be in a society like this. What about conflicts? Or any opinion on this type of society

[Manyana]

Of course,like I said, the "ideal" in this story is that men and women are equal, but in reality, is this more of patriarchal or matriarchal?

[bulgariansumo]

Of course,like I said, the "ideal" in this story is that men and women are equal, but in reality, is this more of patriarchal or matriarchal?

If neither's roles are deemed as having more worth, than it would be neither.

As far as your original question goes, this sounds more like a setting than a premise. Is there an event or character that challenges this order? Or is this background setup for a story that has to do with something else?

[Manyana]

Sorry, English is not my first language so I confused those two. That's why I put it on quotes. I'll change it. Thanks!

[bulgariansumo]

Ah, no problem. Good luck with your story!

[dreample2000]

Hello. I don't think this is a premise but a piece of worldbuilding. A premise contains what your story is about which will include your characters, plot, themes and the worldbuilding, if any. This is too static to be considered as a premise. So to make your premise, what do you want to happen to the situation you described?
As for the content itself, It's a good start but I think you need some elaboration and some editing to do. You mentioned that men and women are equal then in the next sentence, you contradict that by giving reasons why they are not equal (the same). I think you should drop the equality clause unless you are going to use it to show how hypocritical your society is.
Also, societal rules are built from one single reason then elaborated. So what is your cornerstone for all these societal rules you made? I think the phrase "men's honor is his weapon; women's honor is her brain" is your cornerstone then all the rest of the rules follow. So you should put that at the top to make the reasoning clear and easy to follow. Unless you have other more reason(s) greater than the honor part.
The differences in roles is clear enough. It is neither patriarchal or matriarchal unless you assign one sex to be greater than the other. As to what can be improved on, or what certain rules or norms will be in a society like this, only you can answer that. Again go back to your cornerstone and elaborate from there. For example, if we use your definition of honor as your cornerstone, then honor will be used to determine whether a rule is for a man or a woman. In your example, "men own the land, women manages it" can be shown as men being strictly landowners; women being strictly farmers. People not doing the jobs assigned to their sex will be shamed because it is dishonorable.
As to what conflicts about this, again only you can answer that. So what do you want to happen to this setting? Will you portray this setting as utopian or dystopian? If you introduce your characters, how do you want them to react to it? There are different types of conflict, review this: (https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-conflict-in-literature-6-different-types-of-literary-conflict-and-how-to-create-conflict-in-writing#the-6-types-of-literary-conflict). Understanding this is how you create conflict without having to invent it from nowhere and how you improve your storytelling.
As to my opinion on this type of society, it is interesting but what do you want to say by creating this? Do you have some message to impart to the readers by creating this? Note that I am strict about worldbuilding; some authors published or amateur just treat worldbuilding as window dressing; a pretty thing to look at but if you examine them, it falls apart because there is no logic supporting them. A good worldbuilding has sense tying it together, a great worldbuilding has sense and meaning. If you just want something for your characters to play around on and for your readers to find a new setting, ignore this paragraph and just focus on the one above it. If you want to be great, then answer the first question of this paragraph.

[xkdeSskf]

This, from what I know is what the story is going to revolve around. It is good enough as a starter. However, I would like to suggest to be more specific. What has this brought about? Is this going to be constant? I feel rather attached to this idea at first glance. If you are going to develop it into a story eventually, I'll be happy to read this!

[NickRowler]

Is there more to this? It feels like a set up to a premise but there are no characters or conflict.

Will your story address how this type of society isn’t “equal”?
Will you have a character rebelling?
Will you talk about issues people face when they are unable to fulfill their gender roles, both on a personal and societal level?

[DualDragons]

Hmmm maybe it's worth looking at how these roles impact the society. Of course it does affect the type of jobs the two sexes would have, but how does it affect one's standing on the social ladder? Are there boys and girls only schools in society to train them for their respective duties? I imagine that if that is the case then men and women might get estranged from each other during their youth/school.

[Aubergine]

It is an interesting start which leads to a lot of questions that you'll need to answer in order to build your world.

As far as a story goes - the obvious assumption I'll make is that there is some sort of conflict that arises from the rigidity built into society. That could make for a compelling story but it will need quite a bit of fleshing out.

So just to answer your question based on the information you've provided, it is a story element that could give you a solid 'foundation'. There are a lot of questions you'll have to answer, depending on the type of story that you decide to go for. As a story itself, there's not much to it. The pros and cons of such a society will differ in opinion which could be both a good and bad thing.

Personally, it would be great if the story showed how both sexes benefited and experienced losses from such a structure (what happens when women are considered the physically weaker sex? Men are looked down on for treating them any rougher than they would handle a snowflake but they also get to feel good about protecting others, and women don't have to worry about lifting heavy bags when a man is around but women who are physically comparable to men are shunned?). There are a plethora of examples, these are just random ones off the top of my head.

[Manyana]

Okay, I fixed this as much as I could. I hope I answered most of the questions here. There's no characters or settings yet; just the "concept" of the story. English isn't my first language, sorry if I use words incorrectly, feel free to correct me If you want to add some info or something, just reply in the comments.

[NickRowler]

If you are writing a matriarchal society, why would the men own the land?

In patriarchal societies where women own the land, it’s because they are homebodies and take ownership of the children. The men are the breadwinners thus in a split/divorce the woman keeps the house and kids.

In your story, if the men are working on the battle front away from home, why would they own the land? Unless the military men do remote work and work from home. But those types of jobs tend to be tech/office jobs.

[Manyana]

They own it because they're the ones who fought and expanded their territories, that's all, nothing more. In a sense, they're like a child emperor who is technically the emperor but aren't the ones ruling, and the women is the regent and is truly in power. Them owning the land is just that, they can't even "practice" their authority because they don't know how to manage the land.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

I think, as some others have tried to point out, that this is not technically a concept for a story. It's more like a design for a background in which a story can take place. It's stage setting. Next, you have to have characters to walk onto your stage and a conflict or something for them to act out on your stage.

[dreample2000]

There's no characters or settings yet; just the "concept" of the story.

This is a concept for the setting, not the story. A concept for the story involves plot and characters with the setting. You are just describing things, not changing them yet for this to be a story.
I think you've given enough details to have a solid foundation and the logic checks out. Your setting reminds me of ancient Sparta, except Sparta was patriarchal but they're so focused on war and training that women rule in their absence. There's nothing much to do except introduce your characters and make your plot. Personally, I'd limit my world building to what is necessary for the story because I'm not trying to outrank Tolkien but if you want, you can add details later on so you can have a guide when you make your story.

[Nim]

To try and answer your initial question "Is this enough to start a story?" -

It can be enough. In theory, people can build entire stories from a single sentence that serves as a story prompt. What you have so far is a base for a world. You went at it in the direction of 'build the world first'.
I can see several ideas for stories in this world, like perhaps a man who wishes to prove his worth by being as smart as a woman, or vice versa, a lady who wants to show she is as strong as any of the men in the military, and they desire to reach the top in those fields, which would set an unprecedented moment in the world. (Not suggestion from any books, just thoughts from what I saw)

So to start a story? It can be enough. And normally, as world-builders write their stories, the world continues developing as well. Nothing stays static.
But it is up to you to take the base you made to the world, and build a story that is compelling and manages to answer the questions that may arise for people, while not become a shell of its former self because of those same questions or critique.

[AlydaB]

There's nothing wrong with what you have and I'm sure it could make an interesting backdrop for your story, but as plenty of others have noted, this is only a setting concept. It still needs a cast, plot, and themes.

You are- of course- free to approach the process of coming up with your story however you like, but my general advice to any writer would be that the story should come before anything else. A setting is just a backdrop that supports the story you want to tell and helps convey whatever themes you're going for.

Plenty of writers start with a fun idea for a character, a setting, or a "what-if" scenario and are able to build a solid story inspired by that initial concept, but I don't see any point to fleshing out your world to this extent before knowing what kind of story you want to tell, because once again, your setting is nothing more than a tool that exists to help you develop your story and themes.

This setting already hints at potential plotlines and themes. I just think you make it a bit more difficult for yourself putting so much effort into developing a world for a story that doesn't yet exist. It's like... making a beautiful, elaborate wedding dress without knowing anything about the bride's tastes or measurements. You might have to start over from scratch when you get that necessary information, so why waste your time putting the cart before the horse? If that makes sense. I dunno.

Anyways, it's hard to answer your question of "is this enough to start a story?", because whether this setting concept is 'good' or 'bad' directly depends upon the story you want to tell. On its own, it doesn't really mean anything yet.

I'll answer "yes" though. I think you should start brainstorming a plot, and fit the setting to whatever you come up with as needed.

My only feedback on what you've shared is that it's just fine. The kinds of themes (strict gender roles = bad) it could be used to explore have been done to death (every theme has been done to death), but depending on the story, characters, and execution- it could be really interesting and provide new insight, or end up trite and dull. No way to know yet, though.

[Mar_Sadeh]

Short answer: No, this is not enough to start a story, but it's getting there.

Longer answer: What you have right now, as other people have said, is a background/setting within which a story could be created, but there's no indication of what the story might actually be. Who's the main character? Is there one? What's the central conflict? Is it about an individual person finding their way in a society like this, or a grander epic about the entire society? Who/what is the villain? Or, put more bluntly: What's it about?

Until you have the answers to those questions, what you have is interesting but not a story.

[Bearkorps]

While I think this is an interesting foundation for world building, I do have a major issue with the setup. You clearly have a matriarchal leaning society with women in governmental positions of 'power', but the monopoly of violence is in the hands of the men. There is a reason that in international law, states aren't often recognized as sovereign unless the government has clear ownership of the capacity for violence (e.g. somalia is often considered a pirate state since they own the capacity for violence and the government itself has no ability to control that). In states where this divide is too strong and the military is able to act as it's own part of the states you get military coups (Myanmar is a recent example). Your setup, as is, is very unstable and needs a stronger reason for both sides to accept the status quo (particularly the men) that explains how dissidents are handled - monolithization of groups especially ideologically is an easy way for world building to fall apart.
For instance perhaps you have a very warlike nation?

[system]

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