The Intersection of Feminism and Marxism, Essay Example

Marxism and feminism, two of the most important philosophical ideologies shaping progressive public discourse today, share many interesting intersections and similarities.  In feminism’s effort to understand gender inequities and sharp parallel is seen with Marx’s exploration of class differences. Marx’s sociological theories of the world being inherently in conflict, which leads to oppression and the injustices, can fit nicely into feminism’s observations on gender based oppression.  From a Marxist view, a patriarchal culture is simply a society in which an elite bourgeois class (in this case a male-dominated power structure) is exploiting the other half of the populate in order to maintain an upper hand on this constant struggle, and to reap their own personal gains from the constant state of conflict. Conversely, feminism’s critique of the objectification of women, media portrayal and general patriarchal domination serve to reinforce Marx’s world view of constant conflict being exploited in order to serve the interests of the minority.

A progression of the relation between Marxism and feminism would be a focus on the shared goals of dismantling an oppressive system.  Marx’s world view of capitalism being the key underpinning to class power can be easily adopted by feminism.  Only by dismantling the very fiber of oppression, which in Marx’s view is the exploitation of conflict so aptly portrayed in capitalism, can one hope to reach a state of sexual equality and justice.  Unless the aim of feminism is to revamp this conflict/gain system of capitalism, it will never reach its goals.  In this view of gender oppression, the established class power system would be reluctant to cave to feminist demands without being reworked from the ground up.  So the key to woman’s liberation, as seen through this lens, becomes one-in-the-same with Marx’s views of a proletariat revolution aimed at restructuring the very nature of conflict-rule.

As with any theory, these ideologies can be applied to extreme degrees or in relatively small doses in daily life.  A belief in the intersection of the ideals behind Marxism and feminism does not necessitate an armed proletariat revolution or a radical overnight assault on the entrenched system of capitalism.  Marxism and feminism can coexist without this extreme reaction because at its heart the marriage of the two ideas is simply an understanding that true woman’s liberation is linked with the dismantling of all systems of oppression.  This can be on the personal level of somebody chosing to opt out, to whatever degree possible, of a capitalist system that serves to maintain conflict and ergo great degrees of gender inequality.

References

Blunt and Wills, ‘Embodying Geography: Feminist Geographies of Gender’ in Dissident Geographies, 90-127.

Davis, Angela.  ‘Women and Capitalism’ in The Angela Davis Reader, ed. Joy James (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 161-192.

Fraser, Nancy. ‘Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History’, New Left Review 56, 2009, 97- 117

Solanas, Valarie. SCUM Manifesto, 1967.