Brenner and Rhamas’ article “Rethinking Women’s Oppression” talks about certain limitations of understanding the oppression of women from a Marxist perspective.
The authors identify two main arguments that define the Marxist-feminist perspective. Firstly, there is a problem regarding the extent to which feminist issues such as the oppression of women should or should not be understood in terms of capitalism. In other words, is the reason for the oppression of women completely understandable as a product of capitalism? Can we not think about instances of women being oppressed that are not tied to capitalist society? Consider, for example, tribes where women are only given typical gender roles of mother or wife. This leads to the second position, what the authors call “the degree to which the oppression of women is located at the level of ideology.” (33) This is a much more broad position. It basically states that women can be oppressed in any type of society: capitalist, socialist, fascist, etc. Therefore, there is an ideology that is connected to woman’s oppression, that is not dependent on whatever political or economic system we are discussing. This ideology is essentially some type of male patriarchy where women are viewed as inferior or relegated to particular tasks like child-rearing.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Rethinking Women’s Oppression: Summary".
The authors of the text side with the second position. One of the main arguments they give on page 37 is that capitalism seems to be what they call “sex-blind”. In other words, the basic point of capitalism is to make profit, why should capitalism care about gender roles? If women are more successful at making profit, then they will succeed. At the same time, however, there is still clear instances of women’s oppression in capitalist society, for example, distinctions in wages for the same work between men and women. The authors accordingly give the following solution: these gender roles are not parts of capitalism, but they still exist at a “given point in the history of capitalism.” (71) According to the authors, women’s oppression cannot be explained in terms of capitalism.
- Brenner, Johanna and Ramas, Maria. “Rethinking Women’s Oppression.”
