a. Subordination of Women
Engels, who works Karl Marx, was the first to comprehend the signifance of Marxist’s ideas to an understanding of woman’s oppression. He is debatably the first Marxist Feminist, arguing that the subordination of women is functional to the economic structure of the society. He argued that:
The determining factor in history, in the final instance, the production and reproduction of immediate life. This… is of a twofold character: on the one side, the production of the means of existence, of food, clothing and shelter and the tools necessary for that production; on the other side, the production of human beings themselves, the propagation of the species. The social organization under which the people of a particular historical epoch live is determined by both kinds of production. (emphasis quoted in Rosemary Tong’s Feminist Thought)
To be precise, Engels idea is that the process of economic production and biological reproduction are of equal importance in sustaining the social life. In all societies, there has been a sexual orientation in the division of labor which determines the role of men and women in the society. Men are perceived to be responsible for production and thus confined to the public sphere which activities are exclusive in the world of business while women are seen to be accountable for reproduction and thus confined to the domestic sphere which activities include household duties and family rearing. In this emerging structure, the economic power of men is assumed to be that of a capitalist and the lack of power of women is assumed to be that of a worker. For Engels, men supremacy over women is a product of the structure of the class-division between a man with property and a woman with no property. Therefore, the oppression of woman can only be eliminated through the conclusion of private property.
Engels, who works Karl Marx, was the first to comprehend the signifance of Marxist’s ideas to an understanding of woman’s oppression. He is debatably the first Marxist Feminist, arguing that the subordination of women is functional to the economic structure of the society. He argued that:
The determining factor in history, in the final instance, the production and reproduction of immediate life. This… is of a twofold character: on the one side, the production of the means of existence, of food, clothing and shelter and the tools necessary for that production; on the other side, the production of human beings themselves, the propagation of the species. The social organization under which the people of a particular historical epoch live is determined by both kinds of production. (emphasis quoted in Rosemary Tong’s Feminist Thought)
To be precise, Engels idea is that the process of economic production and biological reproduction are of equal importance in sustaining the social life. In all societies, there has been a sexual orientation in the division of labor which determines the role of men and women in the society. Men are perceived to be responsible for production and thus confined to the public sphere which activities are exclusive in the world of business while women are seen to be accountable for reproduction and thus confined to the domestic sphere which activities include household duties and family rearing. In this emerging structure, the economic power of men is assumed to be that of a capitalist and the lack of power of women is assumed to be that of a worker. For Engels, men supremacy over women is a product of the structure of the class-division between a man with property and a woman with no property. Therefore, the oppression of woman can only be eliminated through the conclusion of private property.