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Women and Marxism

Marxism has always been at the forefront of the cause of women's emancipation. The 8th of March (International Women's Day) is a red letter day for us as it symbolizes the struggle of working class women against capitalism, oppression and discrimination throughout the world.
  • The Origins of Women's Oppression
    While middle class feminists regard the oppression of women as an inherent biological trait of men, Marxism explains that the root of women's oppression lies not in biology, but in social conditions.(September 13, 2001)
  • Marxism versus feminism - The class struggle and the emancipation of women
    For Marxists, the root cause of all forms of oppression consists in the division of society into classes. For many feminists, on the other hand, the oppression of women is rooted in the nature of men. It is not a social but a biological phenomenon. This is an entirely static, unscientific and undialectical conception of the human race. It is an unhistorical vision of the human condition, from which profoundly pessimistic conclusions must flow. For if we accept that there is something inherent in men which causes them to oppress women, it is difficult to see how the present situation will ever be remedied. The conclusion must be that the oppression of women by men has always existed and therefore, presumably, will always exist. (By Alan Woods, July 19, 2001.)
  • Women and the Suffrage
    This article looks at the history of the struggle of women to win the right to vote. Barbara Humphries looks at this issue and how it relates to the development of the class struggle. (June 23, 2001)
  • Marxism and the Emancipation of Women
    This document outlines the first steps given by Marxism to fight for women's rights, what the first successful revolution meant for the emancipation of women, conditions of women under capitalism both in advanced and Third World countries and pose the question of how to eliminate inequality between men and women for good. Ana Muņoz and Alan Woods. (March 8, 2000)
  • Women in the Soviet Union
    We reproduce here an article from 1988 which examines the position of women in the former USSR. It exposes the Stalinist caricature of the question of women and the family, and explains the real attitude of Marxism towards the emancipation of women as expressed in the writings of Lenin and Trotsky. By Jen Pickard.

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