Marx & Feminism

The Marxist view of feminism is one that I have never considered. However, political struggles that focus on inequality as a key issue should study Marx as a commentary on socialism. Marx as related to feminism focuses on on how capitalism can be applied to feminism. In capitalism, the ultimate goal is to increase capital. The difference between labor and the capital needed to pay the labor is surplus value. In the words of one of the authors of our book, surplus value is the difference between the labor provided by the workers and the capital needed to maintain the workers. Using this model, the way to abolish inequality used by capitalists to take advantage of the workers is to eliminate the surplus value by demanding that the workers "be maintained" at a cost equal to the value of their labor. If the capitalists have no surplus value and no capital, then monetarily it does not make sense for them to maintain the worker class in their current position.

Other authors are quick to point out that the subjugation of women cannot be attributed merely to a monetary transaction: there is a strong social component to it also. In order to fully understand the causes of these inequalities, social and historical aspects should be analyzed, in addition to political and economic motivations. Like many animals, perhaps it is in our evolutionary nature to provide structure by organizing a hierarchy. The question then becomes, "Why are women subjected to the place that they are? How does this contribute to social relationships within that society?"