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Indlæser... Women's Oppression Today: The Marxist/Feminist Encounteraf Michèle Barrett
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Women's Oppression Today is now a classic text in the debate about Marxism and feminism and has been reprinted many times since its first publication in 1980. Acknowledging the book as a product of the specific political climate of the time it was written, Michele Barrett in this revised edition surveys the political and intellectual changes that have subsequently taken place, changes which would make the writing of such a text now impossible. In a major new essay she discusses the symptomatic absence from the book of any consideration of ethnicity, race and racism, and also reviews the significant developments that have occurred since its first publication. While defending the central arguments of the book in their own terms, she points to fundamental changes in the context in which such a debate might be conducted today. The philosophical challenge of various forms of poststructuralism to the certainties of the book's materialist premises are discussed, as is the challenge of postmodernism to grand political projects such as socialism and feminism. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)305.42Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Women Role in society, statusLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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Some of the central ideas of the book are the relationship between the Marxist concept of base and superstructure and how it relates to the oppression of women: according to Marxism, women's oppression today must be the result of the relations of production in capitalism and must also be beneficial to the capitalist class. This falls short, according to Barrett and some authors she brings up, as both pre-capitalist societies already had some of the oppressive forms present in capitalism and socialist states in their way to communism have done little to overcome the oppression of women. Also, women in the capitalist class can also be the victims of oppression. She argues that there must be something that transcends the economic relations of capitalism that allows this oppression to still be present.
On this regard, Barrett devotes considerable effort analyzing the role of the family in producing and reproducing oppression towards women. She argues that both Marx and Engels fall short in their understanding of the family (while recognizing that Engels' "The private property, the family, and the state" has important merits) and that this might explain in part how Marxist theory even makes the mistake to mystify the family instead of analyzing its contradictions (something that I think it is better understood now than it was in the 70's. -- I recall at least Harvey's historical account of how the bourgeois family form was passed on to the working class as part of an ideological battle for the convenience of the former, but I am not sure in which book that was.) She studies the ideological concept of the family, how the state (through its education, legal, and social apparatuses) makes sure to reproduce it further, and how the ideological family and the real family (both in bourgeois and working classes) differ from each other and how much of the oppression (and not only of women) is a consequence in these deviations.
Another aspect of the book is the criticism of the concept of patriarchy and of the (dated) idea of radical feminism that women's oppression exists for the benefit of men, and how this idea neglects the historicism of this oppression. There are lengthy accounts on ways in which the term patriarchy can even be detrimental to the cause of feminism, and the need for an approach of feminism to Marxist methods (historical materialism, perhaps importantly) on the study of this oppression. She presents several attempts to reconcile Marxist theory with radical feminism but, in her view, most of them have been insufficient one way or another and further work in the area is of utmost necessity.
There's a lot in this book, and I feel that my review fails short to mention all of the insight present in it. It is also hard to come out of it with any clear conclusions -- if anything, I get the feeling that the role of the family, as ideologically defended and reproduced by the state through its different agencies, is nothing but crucial to understand what shapes the currently oppressive society towards women. Taking into account that the state, in its current form, serves to protect capitalist interests above all, it is hard to think of any real emancipation of women within capitalism. However, it is clear that just overcoming capitalism will not suffice to completely eradicate women's oppression -- the ideological formations that would survive capitalism, like the family, need also to be completely transformed, and that's yet another difficult challenge.
From the preface and the afterword (both written recently), it is clear that the book has aged considerably and that a lot of ground has been covered in the last 35 years. However it's still worth a read, and its bibliography and references make it worth it as a starting point in the study of marxist-feminism. ( )