The Politicisation of Feminism as Applied to Marxism

With many interpretations of feminism and sexual expression being based around Marx and Engels' ideas, and with these ideas being very much in line the radical feminist ideas of women being heavily sexually oppressed with all relations between women and men featuring an exploitation and imbalance in power by the men over them as the lesser sex (or akin to the proletariat while the men function as the bourgeoisie as described by Marx and Engels) with this largely being attributed to their role and position in society, the liberation of women and social progress in understanding their rights can be seen to largely be supported by a more liberal and progressive socialist society. As a result, the development of the theory of Marxist Feminism and the women's revolution against their treatment when working in domestic labour, as can be observed throughout the last century, can lead to the politicisation of feminism and this being associated with socialist movements.

In his 1848 Communist Manifesto, Marx implemented female liberation into his socialist theory further exploring the analogy of the woman as the proletariat, seen as an "instrument of production" to support the needs of the man (the bourgeoisie) who exploits her. This is shown when he writes:

"The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears that [under communism] the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to women. He has not even a suspicion that the real point aimed at [by communists] is to do away with the status of women as mere instruments of production."

While this theory and those of other socialist feminists that followed from Marx and Engels appears to be promoting gender equality and aiming to break the metaphorical class barriers and those reducing female liberty, ironically it also appears to somewhat assume that a sexless society and the abolition of gender is impossible as well as the fact that women will always remain the weaker sex. Considering that gender and sex as observed in this context appear to be largely based on position within the workforce and employment type, as well as the clear fact that gender is also derived purely from physical and observable characteristics and common stereotypes leading to individuals becoming institutionalised to categorise each other as masculine or feminine with no link to biological sex and reproductive ability (although this is somewhat taken into account with reproduction being considered a means of producing increased workforce to provide for the growing demands of the people thus increasing the efficiency of the economy), this further proves to explain the point that while radical feminist principles influenced by socialist philosophy would appear to be intended to reduce sexism, they would merely preserve this way of thinking and assume that differences between the genders will always remain.

Domestic work very much appears to be a by-product of a capitalist society with the people employed in this sector (these being mainly women) easily exploited by their more economically powerful employers who have greater role in liberalising the economy and giving them greater freedom to exploit those (women) under them. While the domestic work sector is considered to be high value and employs many, as well as much of the female population globally remaining at home and doing this work while the breadwinner male in the family is employed in another occupation in that, according to John McMurtry, in his work The Cancer State of Capitalism, it is estimated to have a wage equivalent value of approximately $16 trillion, the lack of recognition of this as well as the dehumanisation and repression of the females involved (in that as Federici, S in his 2012 work Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction and the Feminist Struggle, they "serve life not commodity production") is clearly evident. This would also prove to have major negative social and health related implications with this proving to directly impact on quality of life and standard of living for the women involved.