First Published: Marxist-Leninists Unite!, October 1973.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Woman Question, the question of women’s oppression and inequality is part of the social working class question. Within the USNA state the exploitation and oppression of the working class by the capitalist class takes several different forms. One of the main forms is the division fostered among men and women workers, the more intense exploitation and oppression of women due to their position in society and the bribery of the men to aid the capitalists in their exploitation of women. This is all justified ideologically by the bourgeois Ideology of male supremacy and is in essence an attack on the whole working class.
The position of women in society did not fall from the skies, but is the result of the advancement of society due the development of the productive forces and corresponding relations of production. As society has developed from group marriages to the pairing family and the monogamous marriage.
During primitive communism the conditions were such that there was only a division of labour between the sexes and the women, far from being oppressed, were held in high respect. They played the principal role in primitive agriculture while the men roamed the forests in quest of game. Under the matriarchate the women were regarded as the controllers of production. But as the productive forces of society developed with the domestication of herds, the predominant position passed to the men. For it was they who played the principal role in stock breeding and handled the spear, lasso and the bow and arrow. This gradually undermined the matriarchate and led to the overthrow of mother-right and the establishment of male domination and supremacy. It was during this whole period that the family had developed from group marriage to the pairing family (a loosely linked pair).
The gradual increase of production in all branches – cattle raising, agriculture, domestic handicrafts – led to an increase in wealth, the rise of private property and the division of society into classes. The transition to full private property was paralleled with the transition of the pairing marriage to monogamy, introduced by the men, indeed for the women only. The increase in wealth gradually made the man’s position in the family more important than the woman’s, With this the woman was thrust into the isolation and drudgery of domestic slavery and in some cases became the personal property of the male.
The monogamous family is based on the supremacy of the man, the purpose being to produce children of undisputed paternity. It was the first form of the’ family to be based on economic conditions – on the victory of private property ever primitive, natural communal property - it was not in any way the fruit of individual sex-love. But this was the case only among the ruling class in whose hands the wealth of society was concentrated. Engels said that “sex-love in the relationship with a woman becomes, and can only become, the real rule among the oppressed classes, which? means today among the proletariat. . .here all the foundations of typical monogamy are cleared away. Here there is no property, for the preservation and inheritance of which monogamy and male supremacy were established; hence there is no incentive to make this male supremacy effective.”
Engels said that ”The first class oppression coincides with that of the female sex by the male.” As society broke down into classes, there arose the general inequality between men and women, the driving of women into an inferior position in society in relationship to men. Women have basically remained in this position throughout slave, feudalist and capitalist societies though the forms of their exploitation and oppression have been different in each stage. And it is without a doubt that only the ruling classes have benefited from this – as we see today it is only the capitalist class who really benefits from the division among men and women workers, the position of women in this society and the ideology of male supremacy.
As it is, the basis for women’s oppression and inequality is the contradiction between labour and capital, it is not male supremacy. Yet male supremacy is one of the principal social props of capitalism. The emancipation of women is possible only through the proletarian class struggle to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and the building of socialism. This will lay the foundations for ridding the society of bourgeois male supremacy which oppresses all women.
Looking at the position of working women in the US we see that they are exploited and oppressed more so than men. Many industries won’t hire women and there are very few training or apprenticeship programs which include them. The jobs working women usually find are the most menial and unskilled and the pay is extremely low. The 1971 weekly pay average for all men was $162,00, while the average for all women was $100, In most cases women do not have job security and they are stuck with the most boring, repetitious work which in essence is brainless work. Companies are supposed to pay women the same wages as men get for the same work, but in most cases they don’t. They usually assign men and women to different departments or classifications or just hire women. The capitalists make huge profits from the exploitation of women as the low wages of women workers keep all workers’ wages down. As long as low wages are paid to women workers, men workers will also be paid lower wages and be in danger of losing their jobs. The capitalists can hire women to do the same work for less or use them as strike-breakers etc., putting men workers in a position where they can’t demand more pay.
While all working class women are severely exploited under capitalism, national minority women are the most exploited in general. They work in the worst, lowest paying jobs such as sewing, laundries, hospitals and domestic work and their pay is generally $780 less per year than Anglo-American women. The 1971 average weekly wage for Anglo-American females was $102, while that for Negro and other national minorities was $87. The position of national minority women workers is that not only are they exploited and oppressed as a part of the working class and as women, but as members of a national minority due to white chauvinism.
Only 43.4% of the 76 million women over 16 years of age within the USNA are employed. This means that the majority of women are stuck in the home and dependent on men to support them financially. In this position women become part of the reserve army of labour, used by the capitalists when there is a need for more labour, cheaper labour to break strikes, in times of war, etc; Because many women can’t find jobs and also because of family responsibilities and child care, many women are forced to live off of welfare which degrades them even more. Prom early ages women are taught that they should be weak and helpless and live under the protection of men* that men are superior while they are inferior.
Their role as housewives in this capitalist society is a private one and as long as women are restricted to private domestic labour and are dependent on men, their position in society can only be secondary to that of men. The only way that women can become socially equal with men is by being drawn into socially productive labour. Only socialism can eliminate the purely private responsibilities of the home and give women an important social role in production and society. As it is, the total emancipation of women is possible only through communism.
We can see that the ideology of male supremacy, so deeply rooted in our society cannot help but manifest itself in the revolutionary movement. Here it is a dry-rot that threatens the strength of any revolutionary structure. It divides organizations and holds back the development of both male and female comrades. It lays the basis for subjective errors and promotes privilege. When the woman; comrades are left to care for the children or when they are not developed theoretically they can’t do political work and this situation promotes this rotten male supremacy in the very movement fighting for the emancipation and the unity of the working class.
While the struggle against male supremacy must be carried on within our revolutionary organizations, the fight for the equality of women must be also taken to the working class. Working class women, revolutionary women must be trained theoretically and politically. Historically, women have been militant fighters for their equality and democratic rights. Today this spontaneous struggle rages on. Women lead the fight to have day care for their children, for decent food and public education for all children, for an end to inflation, and for equal pay for equal work. This struggle is carried out by mass organizations of women, but under bourgeois or petty bourgeois leadership. The struggle to bring Marxist-Leninist consciousness and leadership to these movements must be carried out. It is through these struggles that the most advanced fighters in the women’s movement will be won over to the cause of Communism.
Comrades, the task which lies before all honest Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries is the building of a Communist Party in order to lead the working class in the fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat. This cannot be done without raising and dealing with the woman question, without bringing masses of women into the struggle and into the leadership of the struggle. The fight for women’s equality must be taken to the working class in order to draw in women and to fight for the unity of the working class.
Finally, let us learn from these words of Lenin, “The struggle for women’s rights must also be linked with our principal aim – the conquest of power and the establishment of the dictatorship. But the broad masses of working women will not feel irresistably drawn to the struggle for state power if we harp on just this one demand, even though we may blare it forth on the trumpets of Jericho, No, a thousand times no! We must combine our appeal politically in the minds of the female masses with the sufferings, the needs and the wishes of the working women. They should all know that the proletarian dictatorship will mean to them – complete equality of rights with men, both legal and in practice, in the family, the state and in society, and that it also spells the annihilation of the power of the bourgeoisie.”