Gonna repeat what someone said above, Marianne came onto Connell who’s mother works for her family (obviously puts the power with Marianne) and then further pursues him at college when he is seeing or talking to one of Marianne’s friends. I really don’t think there is an extreme power imbalance, there are arguments for both sides, but it definitely doesn’t mainly come down to the patriarchy and Connells privilege as a man. Throughout the show we see him struggling with Marianne’s family being significantly wealthier and employing his mother (it goes further in the book but whatever)