Marxism and Feminism: Key Concepts and Historical Context
Scientific Socialism: Marxism
Based on the historical study of the transition from one society to another, Karl Marx and his collaborator and friend Friedrich Engels made an analysis of capitalist society, delving into its contradictions and raising the means for their destruction.
Marxism is distinct from the theoretical, reformist, idealistic, and unrealizable ideas of so-called utopian socialism. Marxist ideas are not a unitary block, since Marx’s writings have been supplemented over time and have undergone significant revisions. Scientific socialism, or Marxism, is influenced by previous movements, mainly those derived from Hegelian German philosophy (dialectical materialism), and the ideas of revolutionaries and activists such as Babeuf and workers like Blanqui.
In his writings, “Theses on Feuerbach” (1845), “Poverty of Philosophy” (1847), the already mentioned “Communist Manifesto”, and especially “The Capital”, Marx and Engels developed a theory encompassing the following aspects:
The law of capital accumulation: Intensification of the exploitation of workers (increased tempo of work, employment of child labor, unfair working hours, etc.) allows the capitalist to increase profits.
The surplus: This could be defined as the difference between the wealth produced by the workers and the wages the employer pays.
The class struggle: Social classes are defined by Marxist relations of production, i.e., the way in which people produce goods.
The dictatorship of the proletariat: Once the working class has become aware of the exploitation and oppression they are suffering, they are organized around groups of a revolutionary character, managed by a specially trained and active leadership engaged in planning the destruction of the capitalist system.
Classless society: After consolidating the new state, its influence will diminish until it disappears. Having eliminated threats against it, the coercive apparatus will cease to have meaning, and each individual will work voluntarily for the benefit of the community.
Marxist revisionism
Revisionism can be defined as the act of submitting an established doctrine, findings, or practices to a revised examination for the purpose of updating or modernizing them.
The Rise of Feminism
Industrial society and liberalism did not bring significant changes to the political, legal, and economic status of women. They continued to be discriminated against compared to men. The only opening was towards women’s work in factories and mines, but under conditions of extreme exploitation and wage discrimination compared to their male colleagues.
On the other hand, women were blocked from professional areas of greater responsibility and higher education, being relegated to domestic roles in the case of the bourgeoisie.
Liberalism further affected the status of men, who achieved first census-based voting rights and later universal suffrage. Women were excluded from both systems for a long time.
It was these circumstances that led to the birth of the suffrage movement from the second half of the nineteenth century, which claimed the right to vote for women as a precursor to feminism, that is, to achieve full equal rights for men. The suffrage movement was not formed in large masses and was more strongly rooted in middle-class urban women who possessed a degree of education. The workers prioritized their class claims over their interests as women. The farmers, because of low education, their full-time work, lack of free time, and isolation, were the last and most reluctant to join the emancipation movements.
Moreover, the main proponents of the suffrage movement and later British and American feminism were followed by Scandinavian and Netherlands activists.
A known figure of the female emancipation movement was the British activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Another well-known figure, Emily Davison, was noted in Spain by Concepción Arenal.
The decisive turning point in social awareness of women was reached in the First World War.
In 1920, all British women who had completed 20 years of age were authorized to vote.