However, the ideology itself has come to fashion itself differently from across nations. Since the seeds of Socialist Feminism were laid in the 1840s, its theorists have primarily engaged in discussions of private wealth accumulation, theft of land and resources, unpaid labour, and systemic sexism and racism as key drivers of women's exploitation within the capitalist framework. Women's role and labour became marginalised as double standards emerged.įor instance, with regard to spousal fidelity, Engels says the notion of the nuclear family has a “specific character of monogamy for the woman only, but not for the man.” As such, infidelity on the part of a woman was deplorable, but considered no more than a moral blemish if engaged in by a man. The book argues that the degradation suffered by women at the hands of their husbands, and the consequent power inequality that it breeds, was borne of a fundamenal hypocrisy. Yet it was, in fact, Engels who truly engaged in a greater exploration of the woman's role and character within a capitalist construct, in his book, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.Įngels' text was regarded as path-breaking for its time, in its identification of the nuclear family construct as the root of women's oppression. Along with his close friend and compatriot, Frederick Engels, Marx argued that women were systemically oppressed by the ruling class, treated merely as second-class citizens, arguing in his Communist Manifesto, for the elevation of women's status both in the domestic sphere, as well as in the broader social environment. What did Marx say about the role of women?Īlthough Marx does not devote much room to directly discuss the role of women within a capitalist structure in Capital, the lens through which he studies the exploitation of labour has proved eminently valuable to social scientists over the years, in unpacking the relationship that women share with the broader socio-economic milieu.Īt the very heart of Marx's take-down of capitalism was the idea that capitalism characterises the working class population simply as “instruments of production” to be exploited by the “bourgeois”. Written as a scathing repudiation of the capitalist ideology, Marx sought to dismantle the economic and cultural rationale that underpins capitalism, and lay bare the systemic inequalities that such an economic assemblage would invariably create and perpetuate. ![]() If it's true what they say about the real value of a thing lying in its ability to stand the test of time, then Capital, or Das Kapital, the centrepiece work of visionary philosopher and socio-political theorist, Karl Marx, must be as precious as the rarest of earthly gems. ![]() Many societies have failed to address the very real phenomenon of the 'glass ceiling' reflected in the dearth of women at higher echelons of business or political office.
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