Marxist Theory Of Gender Inequality

Question 1

What are the four explanations of gender inequality?

Answer 1

1. Women must be submissive wives to ensure a pure bloodline
2. Men need to exercise their control in the home if they do not have control of other areas of life
3. Women do unpaid labour in home and this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism
4. Women act as disposable and cheap part of the workforce which benefits capitalist society

Question 2

Who said women must be submissive to ensure a pure bloodline?

Answer 2

• Engels

Question 3

What did Engels say?

Answer 3

• women’s subordinate position is a result of the ownership of private property and the development of the nuclear family
• the exploiter-exploited relationship that many faced in the workplace became reflected in the home and within relationships between men and women

Question 4

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

Answer 4

• Zaretsky

Question 5

What did Zaretsky say?

Answer 5

• family life gave proletarian men something they could control and a space where they could be the boss
• provided a clear function for capitalism because it meant that workers would tolerate the powerlessness and frustration of being exploited at work because they had a private domain where they were the king of the castle and could take their frustrations out on their wives
• Marxist see families as a conservative institutions to help preserve capitalism and argue this is another reason why a capitalist society is built to benefit nuclear family to encourage workers to engage in one

Question 6

Who said women do u paid labour in the home and this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism?

Answer 6

• Benston

Question 7

What did Benston say?

Answer 7

• 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 socialise and care for children, reproducing the next generation of workers at no cost to capitalist employers
• Benston is critical of the nuclear family and a women’s role within it as it is a stabilising force in a capitalist society

Question 8

Who said women act as a disposable and cheap part of the workforce which benefits a capitalist society?

Answer 8

• Bruegel

Question 9

What did Bruegel say?

Answer 9

• because of women’s unpaid domestic labour, they are readily available to work outside of the home when society requires them to do so
• ruling class use women to join the workforce when needed and send them back to the role of full time housewife when not required
• as a result, women become a cheap reserve army of labour that can be utilised by the ruling class when needed