Drow society is strongly matriarchal, with females holding all positions of power and responsibility in government, the military, and in the home. Males are effective fighters, and can become priests and wizards of minor power. Outside drow communities, they are rarely encountered without female commanders.
Male commanded drow groups are generally either streeakh, “suicide squads”, or are dobluth (outcasts) who have rejected the traditional authority structure of the drow.
Social station is the most important thing in the world of the drow. Ascension to greater power is the ultimate goal in drow society. Assassination is the preferred tool in this job. It must be used discreetly in the city setting, for to openly murder or wage war (on a rival House) brings down the merciless might of drow justice (not because of the act itself, simply as punishment for the boorish act of fighting in public). Outside the patrol range of cities, however, might is right, and Houses and merchant clans often battle each other openly in the wild Underdark.
It’s quite simple to put everyone in a list ordered from most important or influential towards the bottom pit of drow society:
• Lolth
• Matrons
• Priestesses
• Female Drow
• Patrons *
• Male Drow
• Slaves and most other races
* Patrons are just the current consorts of matrons. They don’t possess any real power.
Note that this order only applies to a Lolth dominated society. In other places it might be less stretched and/or males and female positions might be mixed together.
In Lolth dominated cities, houses are led by the matron mothers. They share the control over the rest of the population. The ranks and positions within each houses might follow different rules, but males just won’t be able to obtain any higher position because of their gender.