What is 'feminism' and the women's movement all about?
Often feminists are seen as dungaree and Doc Marten wearing 'man haters'. The Women's Movement is seen as dated. Some believe that the demands of the 1970s 'second wave' feminists have been met.
However, all feminists are not all the same and they don't all agree. Although it's clear that women are subjugated, feminists disagree on how to end this subjugation and what exactly it is that causes it. Many feminists have failed to be relevant to many women, seeing male dominated society as the problem or 'formal equality' as the solution. However feminist demands are still very much relevant to women today.
Socialist feminists see the cause of women's oppression to be in the capitalist system, and that to win equality women workers must stand in solidarity with each other. When industrialisation changed the way in which the system produces goods, women's lives changed completely. Before this, the household and family were at the centre of production, but under industrialisation the manufacture of goods became larger in scale and taken out of the home. This system requires a happy, healthy workforce, and a continuing supply of new workers. The mother and housewife role now became essential, and this role now belongs to women. Workers' struggles are key to a socialist feminist understanding of women's struggles. Despite initial opposition to female labour, working class women still have more in common with working class men than with women of the ruling class. Ultimately, liberation cannot be sought under capitalism.
Friedrich Engels (who co-wrote the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx) wrote that sexual divisions were not based upon nature, but upon the system we live under. He wrote in 'The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State' that the family could be seen as a class society and that its structure is dependent on economics.
Women are exploited in the factories and in the home. At the turn of the 20th Century women's work was often poorly paid and under terrible conditions; such as those of the Bryant and May Match Factory in the East End. Annie Besant, a socialist feminist during that time highlighted the dangerous conditions, she inspired the women in the factory to take action. A strike was organised and eventually the bosses gave into the demands. This was one of the first victories for the Trade Union movement, and it was won by women!
Women went on to play a huge role in shaping the labour movement. This role has been played down by a male dominated trade union movement. Working class women have continued to campaign for rights inside and outside of the workplace, winning many, but by no means enough, rights, such as access to abortion in 1967. Socialist feminists have fought for the demands of working class women and for women's struggles to be linked with workers' struggles. Although the tradition of socialist feminists is a proud one within the Left and labour movement, many socialist groups have rejected feminism claming it hinders unity.
A women's movement should inspire women to fight back against capitalism, as it is in tune with the majority of working class women's demands such as childcare, the welfare state, and equality in pay. The Trade Union movement should be geared up to fight for these, and many other, demands. Class solidarity means men should support the struggles of women.
As socialists, we believe in workers' solidarity - working class people standing together to fight the bosses and the ruling class. The struggles of working class women and working class women are not separate - they are all part of the struggle against the system that breeds oppressive conditions; capitalism.
By Sally
