marxist feminists

Marxist Feminists argue women are oppressed by both capitalism and patriarchy. They see capitalism rather than patriarchy as principal source of female oppression and capitalists as the main beneficiaries. Although men benefit from women’s unpaid work in the home, it is capitalism that ultimately gains the most.

Benston identifies three main ways women are oppressed by capitalism.

· Women undertake a large amount of unpaid labour in the home at no cost to those that own the means of production.

· In her role as the housewife, the woman attends to her husband’s needs, keeping him in running order to perform his role as wage labourer, reinforcing gendered emotional support.

· Women produce and socialise future workers, again at no extra cost to those that own the means of production, reinforcing the reproductive role of women.

Duncombe and Marsden support and develop such ideas further, arguing women now take on a triple shift leading to further inequality. Women are now responsible for paid employment, unpaid housework and childcare and providing emotional support to the family, adding additional strain to women only.

Ansley argues the emotional support provided by the wife acts as a ‘safety valve’ for the frustration produced in husbands as workers. The men’s frustration and anger at their plight as labourers is absorbed by the wife. Women are the ‘takers of shit’, so the system is not threatened.

Marxist Feminists also argue that women are a ‘reserve army’ of cheap labour; useful if jobs are required to be filled, such as in WWII, but when they are not needed, they are ‘sent back’ to be housewives, reinforcing the idea of men being dominate.

evaluation:

1. Functionalists would directly criticise Benston’s views regarding gendered roles. Murdock would argue such roles benefit all individuals involved and society as a whole. his universal functions in a evaluation explain at least 2 of them

2. Elliot rejects the work of Ansley and claim that women only act as emotional sponges, absorbing all the frustration and anger of men. Today statistics indicate that 757,000 men were victims of domestic abuse in 2020. This shows that not all family units lead to the oppression of women, at times men can experience oppression and abuse and male victimisation also needs to be studied.