Marxist feminism

Question 1

Women’s subordination performs a number of features for capitalism:

Answer 1

1. Women are a source of cheap, exploitable labour for employers. They can be paid less bc its assumed that they’re partially dependent on they’re husbands
2. Women are a reserve army of cheap labour that can be moved into the labour force during economic booms and out again during times of recession
3. Women reproduce the labour force through their unpaid domestic labour, both by nurtuting and socialising children to become the next generation of workers
4. Women absorb anger that would be directed at capitalism. Ansley - wives are takers of shit

Question 2

Barrett: the ideology of familism

All marxist fems agree that?

Answer 2

• Women’s subordination within the family performs important economic functions for capitalism
• However some argue that non-economic factors must also be taken into account to understand women’s position
• E.g. Barrett argues that we must give more emphasis to womens consciousness and motivations and to the role of ideology in maintaining their suppression

Question 3

Barrett: the ideology of familism

What is familism

Answer 3

• This ideology presents the nuclear family and its sexual divison of labour as natural and normal
• The family is presented as the only place where women can attain fulfilment, through motherhood, intimacy and sexual subordination

Question 4

Barrett: the ideology of familism

Therfore Barrett argues that?

Answer 4

• Whlw the overthrow of capitalism is necessary to ensure women’s liberation, she argues it’s not sufficient
• We must also overthrow the ideology of familism that underpins the conventional family and its unequal divison of labour

Question 5

Evaluation of marxist feminism

Answer 5

• Fails to explain women’s subordination in non capitalist societies, can’t be explained in terms of capitalism
• Unpaid domestic labour may benefit capitalism but this doesn’t explain why women perform it
• Place insufficient emphasis on the ways in which men oppress women

Question 6

Dual Systems feminism

They’ve sought to combine marxist feminism and radical feminism into a single theory, the two systems are referred to as?

Answer 6

• An economic system: capitalism
• A sex-gender system: Patriarchy

Question 7

Dual Systems feminism

Patriarchal capitalism

Answer 7

• Hartman (1979) - capitalism and patriarchy are intertwined systems that form patriarchal capitalism
• Accept that patriarchy is universal, but it takes a specific form in capitalist societies
• Domestic labour limits women’s availability for paid work - but the lack of work opportunities drives many women into marriage and economic dependence on a man, thus the systems reinforce each other

Question 8

Dual Systems feminism

Walby (1988)

Answer 8

• Argues that capitalism and patriarchy are inter-related
• However, she argues that the interests of the two are not always the same, such as colliding over the exploitation of female labour
• While capitalism demands cheap labour for its workforce, patriarchy resists this by keeping women in the home
• But in the long run capitalism is stronger and so patriarchy adopts a strategy of segregation

Question 9

Dual Systems feminism

Evaluation

Answer 9

Pollert (1996) - argues that patriarchy is not a system in the same sense as capitalism, which is driven by its own internal dynamic of profit making