From the Sexual Division of Labor to the Naturalization of Oppression: a Study on the Works of Engels and Clastres

This article intends to present a study on different approaches to the sexual division of work. This has been based on classical texts of social thought, in order to establish a comparison between two anthropological studies, in which the sexual division of work is seen as the basis of the social relationships of certain societies. It was decided to work with the books “The Society against State”, by Pierre Clastres, and “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”, by Friedrich Engels, in which the division of work by sex is presented as a socially constructed aspect in the process of development of capitalism. Thus, we sought to map some elements that may help the understanding of the problem related to the sexual division of work.