Theoretical background in Marxism
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 acheivement 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.
Productive and reproductive labour
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 cant work (eg 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, 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.
Accomplishments and activism
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.
Wages for housework
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.
Sharing the responsibility of reproductive labour
Another
solution proposed by Marxist feminists is to liberate women from their
forced connection to reproductive labour. In her critique of traditional
Marxist feminist movements such as the Wages for Housework Campaign, Heidi Hartmann
(1981) argues that these efforts "take as their question the
relationship of women to the economic system, rather than that of women
to men, apparently assuming the latter will be explained in their
discussion of the former."
Hartmann (1981) believes that traditional discourse has ignored the
importance of women's oppression as women, and instead focused on
women's oppression as members of the capitalist system. Similarly, Gayle Rubin,
who has written on a range of subjects including sadomasochism,
prostitution, pornography, and lesbian literature as well as
anthropological studies and histories of sexual subcultures, first rose
to prominence through her 1975 essay The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex,
in which she coins the phrase "sex/gender system" and criticizes
Marxism for what she claims is its incomplete analysis of sexism under
capitalism, without dismissing or dismantling Marxist fundamentals in
the process.
More recently, many Marxist feminists have shifted their focus to
the ways in which women are now potentially in worse conditions after
gaining access to productive labour. Nancy Folbre
proposes that feminist movements begin to focus on women's subordinate
status to men both in the reproductive (private) sphere, as well as in
the workplace (public sphere).
In an interview in 2013, Silvia Federici urges feminist movements to
consider the fact that many women are now forced into productive and reproductive labour, resulting in a "double day".
Federici argues that the emancipation of women still cannot occur until
they are free from their burdens of unwaged labour, which she proposes
will involve institutional changes such as closing the wage gap and
implementing child care programs in the workplace.
Federici's suggestions are echoed in a similar interview with Selma
James (2012) and these issues have been touched on in recent
presidential elections.
Affective labor
Feminist scholars and sociologists such as Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Arlie Russell Hochschild, and Shiloh Whitney
discuss a new form of labor that transcends the traditional spheres of
labor and which does not create product, or is byproductive.
Affective labor focuses on the blurred lines between personal life and
economic life. Whitney states "The daily struggle of unemployed persons
and the domestic toil of housewives no less than the waged worker are
thus part of the production and reproduction of social life, and of the
biopolitical growth of capital that valorizes information and
subjectivities." The concept of emotional labor is a focus of affective labor,
particularly the emotional labor that is present and required in
traditionally pink collared jobs (jobs traditionally occupied by women).
Arlie Russell Hochschild discusses the emotional labor of flight
attendants in her book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983)
in which she considers the affective labor of the profession as flight
attendants smile, exchange pleasantries and banter with customers.
Intersectionality and Marxist feminism
With the emergence of Intersectionality
as a widely popular theory of current feminism, Marxist feminists are
building a critique of its weaknesses particularly as it manifests in
transgender politics.
Marxist feminists include an analysis of other sources of oppression
beyond class that increase exploitation in a capitalist system while
also remaining critical of intersectionality theory for relying on
bourgeois identity politics. The current organization Radical Women
provides a clear example of successful incorporation of the goals of
Marxist feminism without overlooking identities that are more
susceptible to exploitation. They contend that elimination of the
capitalist profit-driven economy will remove the motivation for sexism,
racism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression.
Marxist feminist critiques of other branches of feminism
Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai
were opposed to forms of feminism that reinforce class status. They did
not see a true possibility to unite across economic inequality because
they argue that it would be extremely difficult for an upper class woman
to truly understand the struggles of the working class. For instance,
Kollontai wrote in 1909:
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.
Critics like Kollontai believed liberal feminism
would undermine the efforts of Marxism to improve conditions for the
working class. Marxists supported the more radical political program of
liberating women through socialist revolution, with a special emphasis
on work among women and in materially changing their conditions after
the revolution. Additional liberation methods supported by Marxist
feminists include radical demands coined as "Utopian Demands" by Maria Mies.
This indication of the scope of revolution required to promote change
states that demanding anything less than complete reform will produce
inadequate solutions to long-term issues.
