GENDER INEQUALITIES

Question 1

Explanation 1

Answer 1

Women must be submissive wives to ensure a pure bloodline

Question 2

Women must be submissive wives to ensure a pure bloodline

Answer 2

Engels

Question 3

Women must be submissive wives to ensure a pure bloodline (Engels)

Answer 3

• Women’s subordinate position is a result of the ownership of private property and the development of the nuclear family that went with it
• The exploiter -exploited relationship that many faced in the workplace become reflected in the home within relationships between men and women
• In a capitalist society, mean were required to gain control over women so they could eventually pass on private property in the form of inheritance to their children
• important for a man to have control to ensure that they had fathered legitimate offspring and that their wealth could be passed on for generations
• highlighted the importance of the nuclear family as it restricted women’s sexuality and enforced monogamy
  To protect male property rights

Question 4

Explanation 2

Answer 4

men need to exercise their control in the home if they do not have control of other areas in life

Question 5

men need to exercise their control in the home if they do not have control of other areas in life

Answer 5

Zartesky

Question 6

men need to exercise their control in the home if they do not have control of other areas in life (zaretsky)

Answer 6

• Family life gave proletarian men something they could control and a space where they could be the ‘boss’
• Provided a clear function for capitalism
• means that workers would tolerate the powerlessness and frustration of being exploited at work because they had this private domain where they were ‘king of the castle’ and could take out their stress and frustrations on their wives
• By having their wives at home, men are able to exercise their power and be in control which prevents them from walking away from their job
• They are alienated and exploited and have no say in the matter
• It also ensures that the worker has dependents relying on them making it harder for them to resist the oppression that they face at work as they need their wages
• this is another reason why a capitalist society is built to benefit a nuclear family - to encourage workers to engage in one

Question 7

Explanation 3

Answer 7

Women do unpaid labour in the home and this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism

Question 8

Women do unpaid labour in the home and this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism

Answer 8

Benston

Question 9

Women do unpaid labour in the home and this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism (Benston)

Answer 9

• the unpaid domestic labour of women helps support the capitalist system
• If women were paid a wage for their work there would have to be huge redistributions of wealth
• Women renew men’s ability to go out to work and create profits for the ruling class by doing unpaid labour in the home
• Women also socialise and take care of children, reproducing the next generation of workers at no cost to capitalist employers
• As women are in the home doing unpaid work, only one wage needs to be paid and a wife becomes dependent on her husband wage
• Being part of the nuclear family weakens to position of individual workers in relation to their boss
• If they felt they were not being paid enough or being treated badly, a single person may well choose to walk away and hope they can find another job that pays and treats them well.
  But when that worker has to also two dependents into account (e.g. a spouse and children ) that becomes a much more difficult decision
  If a man has to provide for his wife and children this means that it is less likely to challenge capitalism

Question 10

Explanation 4

Answer 10

Women act as a disposable and cheap part of the workforce which benefits a capitalist society

Question 11

Women act as a disposable and cheap part of the workforce which benefits a capitalist society

Answer 11

Bruegel

Question 12

Women act as a disposable and cheap part of the workforce which benefits a capitalist society (Bruegel)

Answer 12

• Because of a women’s unpaid domestic labour, they are readily available to work outside of the home when society requires them to do so
• the ruling class use women to join the workforce when needed (i.e in economic booms) and send them back to the role of full time housewife when not required
• This makes women become a cheap ‘reserve army of labour’
• This generates a group of unemployed people looking for work which creates competition amongst individuals and an acceptance for exploitation
• Women are often not members of trade unions and are prepared to work for less money as their wage could be a second income