Socialist Feminism

Question 1

According to Socialist feminists, what does gender inequality in society stem from?

Answer 1

Capitalism

Question 2

Who initially put the argument forward that women are oppressed primarily by capitalism?

Answer 2

Engels

Question 3

Why were women required to be virgins until marriage and monogamous throughout marriage, according to Engels?

Answer 3

Because capitalism was based on the accumulation of private property, assuring the paternity of their heirs was vital to men.

Question 4

What are the Marxist reasons for the oppression of women?

Answer 4

Capitalism needed workers to be supported and looked after by unpaid helpers to enable them to carry out a proper day’s work.
Women were to be confined to the domestic, private sphere where their primary roles would be to take care of their husbands, have children and socialise those children into becoming the next generation of workers and carers that capitalism needed. This is sometimes known as reproducing the labour workforce.
Women also acted as a reserve army of labour and could be used as part of the workforce when needed, then sent back home when their usefulness had ended.

Question 5

What is a reserve army of labour?

Answer 5

The idea that women constitute a spare workforce that can be called upon as and when needed.