Marxist feminism

Marxist feminism is feminism focused on investigating and explaining the ways in which women are oppressed through systems of capitalism and private property. According to Marxist feminists, women's liberation can only be achieved through a radical restructuring of the current capitalist economy, in which, they contend, much of women's labor is uncompensated.For what reason, then, should the woman worker seek a union with the bourgeois feminists? Who, in actual fact, would stand to gain in the event of such an alliance? Certainly not the woman worker. Marxist feminism is feminism focused on investigating and explaining the ways in which women are oppressed through systems of capitalism and private property. According to Marxist feminists, women's liberation can only be achieved through a radical restructuring of the current capitalist economy, in which, they contend, much of women's labor is uncompensated. Influential work by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848) in The Communist Manifesto and Marx (1859) in A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy laid the foundation for some of the early theories of the relationship between capitalism and class exploitation. The theory and method of study developed by Marx (1859), termed historical materialism, recognizes the ways in which economic systems structure society as a whole and influence everyday life and experience. Historical materialism places a heavy emphasis on the role of economic and technological factors in determining the base structure of society. The super-structure prescribes a range of institutions and ideologies aimed to advance the interests of those in power and (under capitalism) the exploitation of the working class. Marx (1859) argues that this institutional and ideological superstructure serves the interests of the ruling class, concealing the exploitation inherent in capitalist social relations in order to remain in power. Key to Marxist theory is the existence of conflict, both between the working class and the capitalist ruling class (owners of production), and also within the capitalist economic system itself. The conflicts within the capitalist economic system leads inevitably to economic crises, while the ability of the working class to recognise its own class interests, and organise to claim state power and the means of production, could lead to the overthrow of the capitalist system itself and the achievement of a socialist system. As Vladimir Lenin (1917) argues in support of this possibility, the organization of socialist consciousness by a vanguard party is vital to the working class revolutionary process. In 1884, Engels published The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. According to Engels (1884), in early systems of (prehistoric) human organisation the position of men and women was equal, with equal social status attributed to women's domestic roles (associated with their childbearing), and the male role of supporting the tribe (or, as later, the family) in provisioning food and other necessities of life, via hunting, fishing and herding for instance. Sexual relationships within tribes were not monogamous, and lines of inheritance were matrilineal - transfer of property on death passed through the mothers family line. However with the development of more effective methods of producing for human needs, and associated development of excess products beyond immediate consumption requirements, the issue of inheritance of this excess gained new importance - while at the same time increasing the social status of men who were responsible for this production. So arose the impetus for the imposition of patrilineal inheritance, the overthrow of matrilineal inheritance and the necessity of imposing monogamy on women to ensure the male parent was certain only his own offspring would inherit his wealth. 'The overthrow of mother- right was the world historical defeat of the female sex '. Thus the establishment of private ownership of had a profound effect on the status of women. In a private ownership system, individuals who do not own land or other means of production are in a situation that Engels (1884) compares to enslavement - they must work for the owners of the land in order to be able to live within the system of private ownership. Engels (1884) argues that a woman's subordination is not a natural result of her biological disposition but of social relations established around the female sex's reproductive capacity. Men's efforts to achieve their demands for control of women's labor and sexual faculties have taken different forms depending on the wider socio-economic system of production, and under modern capitalism has become institutionalized in the nuclear family. Through a Marxist historical perspective, Engels (1884) analyzes the widespread social phenomena associated with female sexual morality, such as fixation on virginity and sexual purity, incrimination and violent punishment of women who commit adultery, and demands that women be submissive to their husbands. Ultimately, Engels traces these phenomena to the recent development of exclusive control of private property by the patriarchs of the rising slaveowner class in the ancient mode of production, and the attendant desire to ensure that their inheritance is passed only to their own offspring: chastity and fidelity are rewarded, says Engels (1884), because they guarantee exclusive access to the sexual and reproductive faculty of women possessed by men from the property-owning class. As such, gender oppression is closely related to class oppression and the relationship between men and women in society is similar to the relations between proletariat and bourgeoisie. On this account women's subordination is a function of class oppression, maintained (like racism) because it serves the interests of capital and the ruling class; it divides men against women, privileges working class men relatively within the capitalist system in order to secure their support; and legitimates the capitalist class's refusal to pay for the domestic labor assigned, unpaid, to women. In the capitalist system, two types of labor exist, a division stressed by Marxist feminists like Margaret Benston and Peggy Morton. The first is productive, in which the labor results in goods or services that have monetary value in the capitalist system and are thus compensated by the producers in the form of a paid wage. The second form of labor is reproductive, which is associated with the private sphere and relates to the social production of current and future workers needed for the function of the capitalist system; the domestic needs of current workers, and care for those who can't work (e.g. the sick and elderly). Reproductive labour therefore involves anything that people have to do to maintain their existence outside the domain of wage earning labour (i.e. cleaning, cooking, having children). Due to their physiological attributes of childbearing, cis women (and, therefore, passing trans women) have traditionally been assigned to the domestic sphere where the labor is reproductive and, since this role lost its status with the development of private property, it has since been uncompensated and unrecognized in a capitalist system. It is in the best interest of both public and private institutions to exploit the labor of women as an inexpensive method of supporting a work force. For the producers, this means higher profits. For the nuclear family, the power dynamic dictates that domestic work is exclusively to be completed by the woman of the household thus liberating the rest of the members from their own necessary reproductive labor. Marxist feminists argue that the exclusion of women from productive labor leads to male control in both private and public domains. The militant nature of Marxist feminists and their ability to mobilize to promote social change has enabled them to engage in important activism. Though their controversial advocacy often receives criticism, Marxist feminists challenge capitalism in ways that facilitate new discourse and shed light on the status of women. These women throughout history have used a range of approaches in fighting hegemonic capitalism, which reflect their different views on the optimal method of achieving liberation for women. Focusing on exclusion from productive labor as the most important source of female oppression, some Marxist feminists devoted their activism to fighting for the inclusion of domestic work within the waged capitalist economy. The idea of creating compensated reproductive labor was present in the writings of socialists such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1898) who argued that women's oppression stemmed from being forced into the private sphere. Gilman proposed that conditions for women would improve when their work was located, recognized, and valued in the public sphere. Perhaps the most influential of the efforts to compensate reproductive labor was the International Wages for Housework Campaign, an organization launched in Italy in 1972 by members of the International Feminist Collective. Many of these women, including Selma James, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Brigitte Galtier, and Silvia Federici published a range of sources to promote their message in academic and public domains. Despite the efforts beginning with a relatively small group of women in Italy, The Wages for Housework Campaign was successful in mobilizing on an international level. A Wages for Housework group was founded in Brooklyn, New York with the help of Federici. As Heidi Hartmann acknowledges (1981), the efforts of these movements, though ultimately unsuccessful, generated important discourse regarding the value of housework and its relation to the economy.