Dear staceyting,
In order to understand the relationships and influences between
Marxism and feminism, we must first have definitions of the two
theories.
Martha Gimenez defines feminism as "the struggle against sexism, or
discriminatory social practices and ideologies that result in male
supremacy and female oppression" (Source: Gimenez, Martha, "MARXISM
AND FEMINISM" Originally Published in Frontier: A Journal of Women's
Studies. Vol 1, No 1, Fall, 1975,
http://csf.colorado.edu/authors/Gimenez.Martha/marx.html).
In Marxism, "the concept of class struggle plays a central role in
understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from
bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately
classless society." (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin
Company, http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=marxism&r=67).
In other words, both theories evolve around the assumption, that there
is a constant conflict in our world, between those who rule, and the
repressed. The difference, seemingly, lays in the identity of the
oppressed. While in Marxism their identity is based on social class,
in feminism it is based on gender. According the Marxian theory, it is
the proletariat (working class) that are repressed and used as
production mechanism. According to feminism, it is the women who are
repressed and used only as sexual and reproduction mechanism.
However, it would be wrong to claim, that Marxism doesn't refer to the
condition of women in the social structure. Adkin writes, that "[I]t
is interesting that, in writing about the nature of human relations in
a Communist society, Marx drew a parallel with the nature of sexual
relationships--as they might ideally be, i.e., based on equality and
reciprocity rather than instrumentalism and oppression. He wrote:
The immediate, natural and necessary relation of human being to
human being is also the relation of man to woman.... [I]n this
relation it is... revealed... the extent to which human nature has
become nature for man and to which nature has become human nature for
him. From this relationship man's whole level of development can be
assessed. It follows from the character of this relationship how far
man has become, and has understood himself as, a species-being, a
human being. [Marx Early Writings, 154].
In other words, the relations between men and women in a society are a
telling measure of its development towards truly nonexploitative [sic]
and "human" relations in general. Marx and Engels argued that in
bourgeois society, the oppression of women--in fact the degradation of
sexual relations in general--takes specific forms.
Engels argued that in the bourgeois family, the wife is an instrument
of reproduction, bound by contractual obligations intended to secure
the inheritance line of accumulated bourgeois property. He traces the
patriarchal oppression of women to (i) the replacement of matriarchal
and primitive communistic types of household structure by patriarchal
structures, which accompanied the accumulation of wealth by individual
males; and (ii) the destruction of small commodity production based on
the household unit. This meant that, whereas formerly women had
participated in all the productive activities necessary to reproduce
the household, the expropriation of small holders, the impoverishment
of artisans, brought about by the Industrial Revolution, created two
spheres of labour: domestic (or private) and social (or wage) labour.
As the means of subsistence increasingly assumed the form of the
monetary wage, unpaid domestic labour was degraded to the status of
domestic servitude." (Source: Adkin, Laurie L. "Marxism, Human Nature,
and Society", Published in The Baha'i Faith and Marxism (Ottawa:
Baha'i Studies Publications, 1987),
http://bahai-library.org/books/marxism/marxism3.adkin.html).
Feminism derives much from the Marxist theory. First and foremost, in
the notion, that "man is the ensemble of social relations". Gimenez
writes, that "This notion is the basis of the Marxist theory of human
nature, which negates the notion of isolated human nature and affirms
the inextricable unity between persons and their natural and social
envirorunents [sic], Marxism postulates that neither persons nor their
natural and social environment can be viewed in isolation, as things
in themselves which "interact" with one another or which are the
"cause" or the "effect" of the other." (ibid.). She later adds, that
"The understanding and conceptualization of sexism today presupposes,
therefore, an understanding of its place within the capitalist mode of
production" (ibid.). In other words, feminism also derives from the
same sources and social conditions as Marxism.
This is not to say, that all feminist theorists view Marxism in the
same way. Some liberal feminist, believe in the ability of the women
to integrate themselves into the society; others, with a "biological"
approach, believe that there are biological predispositions, which
create the differences between women and men, and therefore it is not
necessary that the oppression is the product of repressive production
relations. Adkin writes about it "Bourgeois feminism does not trace
the source of women's oppression in the work place or home to
structural, economic causes, or to the inherent patriarchy of social
institutions, but to "attitudes" which "discriminate" against women
gaining entry to certain positions. Its theme is generally that women
will be "equal" or "liberated" when the legal or attitudinal barriers
to their occupying positions currently held by men are removed. So,
for example, bourgeois feminists would approve of women's demands to
become military aircraft pilots or bank executives. Their role models
might include such women as Indira Gandhi or Margaret Thatcher. The
emphasis, in other words, is not on transforming society, but on
gaining access to the higher echelons of existing institutions."
(ibid).
Did Marxist thought affect other movements or social philosophies? Of
course. The notion that there is oppression of the weak, inspired
anti-colonialists (the oppression of the colonies by the colonial
powers, and of its humans as production tools); racial equality
movements were inspired by the idea that there is double repression of
people of colour - both as part of their race and as part of their
social class; peasant movements (the notion of work-relations
oppression goes wider than the original intent - that of the social
relations in an industrial society); and one could even claim that
gay-rights or "green" movements were inspired by the notion, that the
institutional norms are set by the hegemonic powers and their
interests, against which one should fight.
Read Further
============
Women and Marxism http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/ - wonderful
and comprehensive site. Bookmark it :-)
Gimenez, Martha "Marxist Feminism / Materialist Feminism" 1998
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/mar.html
"Marxism and Feminism: An Understanding Of Raya Dunayevskaya’s
Interpretation" http://struggle.net/mhf/feminism.htm
"Anarcha Feminism", http://coss.stcloudstate.edu/psamuel/AnarchaFeminism.htm
Anarchism & Womens Liberation
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/women_wsm.html
Alt.Feminism http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.feminism
Marxism-Feminism http://csf.colorado.edu/soc/m-fem/ (discussion group,
with many academic articles)
Marxism-Feminism http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/marxism/m-f/
(discussion group)
Jagger, A & Rothenberg (1993). Feminist Frameworks. United States of
America: McGraw-Hill
I hope that answered your question. If you are truly interested in the
issue, I really recommend reading original Marxist and Feminist
thinkers; including Gimenez, Heidi Hartmann, and many others (you
could find a list of Marxist thinkers, also with some parts of their
works, at http://www.marxist.org). I used, except for my own
knowledge, also a search strategy, that included looking for relevant
terms such as "Marxism" and "feminism". If you need any clarifications
on this answer, please let me know. I'd be pleased to clarify my
answer before you rate it. |
