Women & Class, written by Professor Mary Davis draws on and takes forward the work of Engels and early Marxist feminists like Clara Zetkin.
The six chapters of the book cover the historical development of Marxist feminist theory; comparisons with and a critique of rival theories including biological determinism, liberal and radical feminism, intersectionality and the breadth of what is today described as identity politics; the history of women’s struggles over the last two centuries; women’s struggles today and women in the communist party over the last 100+ years.
It debunks the ideologies of an inherent competition and conflict between the sexes prevalent in radical feminism, biological determinism that sees men as inherently aggressive and women as inherently vulnerable and liberal feminism which seeks to advance the interests primarily of middle-class women, usually white, and sees these advances as possible within capitalism.
The theory developed by Cde Davis in this book takes forward the analysis of the class-based nature of oppression and its purpose in maintaining the economic and political relations which support class exploitation, using capitalism as the principal exemplar.
As Women & Class demonstrates the oppression of women and black people is a function of class society which takes on particular forms under capitalism. Capitalism was founded on the racist exploitation through slavery of black people and the colonisation of most of the global south. Every imperialist war starts from the demonisation of the enemy as ‘other’ and an inherent threat to ‘us’.
Women’s oppression, like that of black people stems from our physical characteristics and has a material basis. Oppression, unlike other forms of discrimination is rooted materially in the process of class exploitation at the point of production as well as operating at the superstructural level through oppressive ideologies which maintain class rule by dividing the exploited.
The inbuilt inequality of the labour force sees jobs segregated on the basis of sex and race, with low pay and poor conditions seeming natural and therefore normalised when women sell their labour power. Women’s labour in particular has and continues to be undervalued and underpaid in Britain and across the world.
The sexed division of labour in the workplace, extends to the domestic division of labour in which the concepts of ‘housewife’ and ‘home-maker’ coincide with the structural separation of the domestic home economy and the profit-oriented economy of capitalism. The fact is working class women have never merely been housewives and home-makers – we have always worked and constitute half the working class.
Domestic labour does not produce profit but does produce a use value for immediate consumption. This labour is essential for the maintenance and renewal of labour power and is therefore a precondition of capitalist exploitation.
In the case of women our reproductive system ensures the reproduction of class society. We experience super-exploitation because of that reproductive function and the ideological construction of gender roles that place an undue responsibility on women for unpaid domestic labour in addition to our exploitation in the workplace where our labour, like that of men, is subject to the extraction of surplus value. As women continue to be paid less than men we are super-exploited in the workplace and the gender roles that describe our place in society guarantee our super-exploitation in the domestic sphere as well. This is the nature of our oppression.
Like race, gender is an ideological construct through which women’s oppression is both manifested and hegemonized. This oppression transcends class and is experienced by women in the ruling class, whose role is to secure the patrilineal inheritance principles, ie the transmission of property from one generation to the next. Black women suffer the most severe oppression because of their physical characteristics, which historically subjected them not only to slavery but systematic rape and abuse by their white male owners.
It is critical to understand how the twin ideologies of race and gender take on the appearance of natural phenomena rather than the constructions they are to appreciate the role they play in normalising the economic and political systems under which we live and maintaining the divisions within the working class that hamper the development of class consciousness.
Cde. Davis draws a distinction between oppression which she describes as a function of capitalism that affects women and black people; and discrimination and harassment of other sections of the population including LGBT people, people with disabilities and people of different faiths and nationalities. The latter may be no less severe for the people on the receiving end of this treatment, but capitalism does not rely on them for its continuation, unlike the oppression of women and black people. So, the socially liberal Cameron coalition could happily legislate for gay marriage meanwhile equal pay for women remains a pipe dream some 50 years after it was made law.
For Marxist-Leninists it’s important we ground our theory in practice and material reality so, for instance, it’s worth asking – are women worst affected by the cost-of-living crisis and if so, why? Before giving some concrete examples to illustrate why women are worst affected by this crisis, it’s necessary to give some context.
Of course we understand this is a crisis of global capitalism in which wealth is centralised in fewer and fewer hands, where climate catastrophe is presenting an existential threat to the planet, production is distorted by the military-industrial complex, the export of jobs and capital to regions where surplus value can be maximised at the expense of the entire international working class, and the impoverishment of the majority of the world’s population.
Britain continues to suffer the impact of austerity cuts that have fallen disproportionately on the services provided by local government and the health service – with overwhelmingly female workforces. None of the £80billion+ cuts in public services since 2010 have been subject to Equalities Impact Assessments, as required by law.
By 2022 there was a £2.7billion funding shortfall for social care services resulting in 2.6 million people having unmet care needs which in turn resulted in 1.4 million women being taken out of the workforce because they provide unpaid care for dependent family members.
4.5 million women are economically inactive or under-employed because of a lack of affordable childcare, in the context of over 4000 childcare providers closing in 2022 alone.
The attack on welfare benefits has had a disproportionate impact on women. The benefits caps implemented in 2013 saw women punished by the two-child limit which removed the entitlement to child benefit & universal credit for the third or more children born after this rule was implemented. Women are more likely to be single parents, and almost invariably are the principal carers for children and sick relatives.
Women are also more likely to be homeless with children and living in unsuitable and unfit temporary accommodation at a time when homelessness is at its highest level and growing because of the lack of affordable homes.
The wholesale privatisation of care services has also disproportionately affected women who constitute the vast majority of the workforce providing domiciliary and residential care. The average pay for this work rarely exceeds minimum wage, whereas equivalent jobs still provided by local government are generally paying up to 50% more for the same work.
In Britain today the pay gap between men and women is such that by the last six weeks of the year women are in essence working for nothing in comparison to the earning capacity of their male colleagues.
We see the state failing women at every turn. The cuts to policing and criminal justice budgets, compounded by endemic misogyny, homophobia and racism in the police service mean that there is a 99% chance of getting away with rape and a 43% reduction in the prosecution of domestic abuse cases since March 2017 despite the number of reported cases increasing. The percentage of prosecutions resulting in conviction also decreased by nearly 2% in the year to March 2022.
71% of all victims of human trafficking are women and girls the majority enslaved in the sex industry and domestic servitude.
It’s worth noting that while racist, homophobic, transphobic and disablist abuse are defined as hate crimes, misogyny is not.
Women’s health care has also suffered disproportionately under austerity. The waiting list for gynaecological services is the highest of all specialisms. There is a crisis in midwifery services coinciding with a 19% increase in maternal deaths between 2018 -20 compared to previous years with women living in the most deprived areas more than twice as likely to die as those in the most affluent parts of Britain. The maternal mortality of black women is nearly four times that of white women.
Post-Brexit and Covid-induced HRT shortages made headlines thanks to some high-profile celebrity campaigning. This treatment is essential to the health and well-being of older women and yet suffers from under-investment and inadequate prioritisation. It is inconceivable that the lack of safe, effective and timely treatment options for widespread conditions such as chronic period and ovulation pain and potentially life-changing and life-threatening conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, ovarian and uterine cancer, and menorrhagia would be tolerated if men suffered these problems. Likewise, the impact of menopause, which affects all women, or half the population, receives scant attention from the medical profession despite its effects being potentially devastating for older women’s quality of life and ability to function.
The most important task facing our movement is to address the barriers to achieving working class unity and developing class consciousness. This necessitates a recognition of the structural misogyny that exists in the British state, and its reflection in the ideology that continues to maintain the oppression of women. In particular it requires men to examine their own behaviours, and to ask whether it is right that women continue to bear the brunt of domestic labour. After all, the material basis of the sexual division of labour is pregnancy, childbirth and breast feeding. There are no other sex-based impediments to sharing domestic labour and caring responsibilities on an equal basis; nor are there any sex-based impediments to women undertaking all roles in the workplace and otherwise in society on an equal basis with men.
Women & Class is essential reading for all people who are interested in defeating sex discrimination and oppression, understanding this is a prerequisite for achieving socialism. The book is available as a PDF on the Members Area and can be purchased from the Online Shop.