Socialist Feminism.

How it Started...

Friedrich Engles feminism started after Marxs death

in the 20thCentury.
Engles believed that the raised conscious of women
could help to support a broader revolutionary
movement.
Marxists feminists are concerned with inequalities in
the workplace and the home.
They believe that the equality of women relies upon
the destruction of capitalist exploitation in gender.
There approach tends to be towards the public
sphere, paying particular attention to unpaid labour.

Elements of Marxist and Socialist

Feminism - Eleanor and Rachel T

Argue that capitalism and patriarchy is the main

source of female oppression, by dismantling
capitalism women will be liberated.
Women subsidise the capitalist system indirectly
because they raise the next generation of workers
at a very low cost to the state.
Marxist feminists believe that only the abolition of
capitalism can solve the inequality between men
and women.
Socialist feminist however, believe that capitalist
oppression can be stopped but by parliamentary
reform, not revolution.

Main Elements of Marxist

Feminism

Marxism see class division rather than gender as

the root of womens oppression.
For Marxists much feminism is a bourgeois theory
that seeks to reform the system to the advantage
of some women, rather than get rid of the system
that exploits the vast majority of women and men.
The Marxist feminist approach tends, like liberal
feminism to be oriented towards the public sphere
and given its concern with the organisation of
labour generally pays particular attention to
womens position in relation to waged labour.

Main Elements of Marxist

Feminism

Socialist feminists attempt to maintain some elements

of Marxism regarding the significance of class
distinctions and labour while incorporating the radical
feminist view that sexual oppression is not historically
a consequence of class division.
The second major strand of socialist feminism
attempts to draw the work of radical and Marxist
feminists into one theory power and describes a
unified system sometimes referred to as capitalist
patriarchy.
Socialist feminists are subjected to two forms of
oppression; that of the capitalist state and that of men
at home and in their personal lives.

Barbara Ehrenreich.
Background:

Ehrenreich was born into a working class family in

the town of Montana, 1941. This was until her father
gained a degree from the Butte School of Mines and
by her teens, they had achieved middle class
status.
This enabled Ehrenreich to read Chemistry at Reed
College followed by a PhD in cell biology.

Her shifting from one scientific discipline to another inspired the

confidence of being able to learn anything if she tried.
Ehrenreichs transformation as a feminist was prompted by her
experience of giving birth. In 1987, she told the Globe and Mail
newspaper that her labour was induced, because it was late and the
doctor wanted to go home.
This led to her involvement in the Womens Health Movement,
striving for better and equal healthcare amongst women.
Her books and essays have been widely published and she has won
awards such as the Sydney Hillman Award for Journalism.

Global Woman: Nannies, Maids & Sex Workers In the

New Economy (2004):
Ehrenreich says that if a woman is to succeed in a tough
male world, she must hand over the care of her children,
home and elderly parents to women from the developing
world.
It is thought that 50% of global immigrants are female.
Millions of these poverty-stricken women abandon their own
children and families in order to migrate as nannies, maids
and sometimes sex workers. Global capitalism is thus
depicted as putting huge pressure on women and their
families.

Ehrenreich says there has been a global transferal of

services, associated with the role of the typical house-wife.
She describes this as a care deficit.

Ehrenreich argues that the globalisation of women is

damaging to the families left behind She also argues that

Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America (2001):

This highlights the effects of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Act of 1996 on the working poor and women:

By condemning unemployment, the state encourages the individual to find

the first job that comes along and thus be overly submissive or manageable
to the employer. Ehrenreich says this is an unfair ultimatum between
accepting employment on the bosses terms or risking homelessness.

Ehrenreich says there are elements of misogyny within the Act. The single
mother is exploited and must work for less pay than is liveable. The states
anti-unemployment scheme facilitates this.

They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared
for
They endure deprivation so inflation will be low
Ehrenreich is thus saying that the working poor, particularly women
are the
philanthropists of society and the Welfare Reform Act of 1996
fuels this.

Main Criticisms
Lauren
Heavy emphasis on capitalism causing
gender inequality
Inequalities have already been reduced
under capitalist systems
Places to much emphasis to the economic
sphere, doesnt focus on the domestic sphere
When it does, simply assumes all homemakers
are exploited by husbands/fathers
Revolution is unnecessary, unlikely and
undesirable