Words: 863
A specific targeted attack Is needed to dismantle septets of oppression. Marxism alone cannot adequately address inequalities of race and gender because it ignores the historical impacts of race and gender As such critical problems will persist Patriarchy Is not Just a superstructure It is an independent oppressive system which must also be dismantled before true revolution can occur Patriarchal norms will persist In the home (home Is a reflection of society) Marxist revolution alone is not sufficient for gender and race equality
Patriarchy and Capitalism and Racism all oppress women as allied but independent systems Therefore the revolution that Marx envisioned, a society that would operate under equality for all would need to address them as such and challenge them through a combined attack Marx believed that economic change would lead to cultural change and all other forms of oppression would eventually ceases For Marx and Angels women were seen as a the men’s proletariat They concluded that childcare and housework needed to be socialized Assumed that production shapes human consciousness and society
Class takes precedence – class based revolution rather than race and gender based movements Is women’s integration into production enough to make patriarchy fall? Considers the liberation of women and minorities only within the context of a gender-blind, color-blind, class-based society emancipation of those oppressed by class Critics of Marx Marx theory focuses only on work as a means of oppression Minimizes Patriarchy and Racist’s influence by using Communism as a blanketed one size fits all approach to eliminating all forms of oppression
Argue that the dynamics between Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Racism as independent but mutually supportive systems that must be overthrown together Destruction of Capitalism alone will not guarantee that these other systems will be abolished Oppression can continue in the home Creates a double day for women Does not address issues of occupational segregation Which continue to keep women in subjugated positions Creates the risk that the oppressions of women and minorities will be considered a non-integral part of the transition to Communism
Since such oppressions are viewed as superstructures and therefore secondary to economic issues Under this logic Patriarchy and Racism will be allowed to survive which highlights the need for a triangulated approach. Failure to address them as such may lead prevent initiatives to eliminate them from being taken seriously (strictly enforced) Patriarchy and Racism are culturally ingrained It is necessary to disarm the weapons of capitalism in order to neutralize their effects on those that they target.
By allowing these struggles to be viewed as secondary (or simply ignored) The establishment of policies that will address these oppressions will only be dependent on the “whims” of revolutionary leadership Will benefit women and minorities only when there interests align with those of the revolution. Interest convergence) Strong cultural ideals restricting women to the home will continue to discourage them from participating in the workforce Not everything that supports the revolution will necessarily eliminate patriarchy and racism More likely it will lead to half measures which will in turn produce only half successes (gender assigned occupational segregation) Even colonization will continue to perpetuate gaps in workforce participation Revolution alone will not achieve the full scale equality that Marx presumed would follow as a result of the end of Capitalism A society where women and minorities can become full economic partners REQUIRES a re-envisioning of the household so as to professionalism and collective the tasks traditionally performed by each woman in her individual home.
However women are still left with the majority of responsibility for the home and hillier and this only perpetuates patriarchal values about women and men’s places in society Whether commitment to gender and racial liberation is real or mere rhetoric How can we trust a system birthed within oppression of women and racism to truly emancipate either group? All the services provided for women are disproportionately provided by women for example childcare services and even after a revolution they are likely to stay the same since Marxist theory ignores how these systems have manifested : occupational segregation for example. Even if laws are created to address these systems it will be difficult to enforce them within a society that has been conditioned by these racist and patriarchal beliefs and as such will most likely fail to have any meaningful impact Culturally women are Just assumed to take on domestic duties.
That the majority of childcare, nursing, housekeeping are still predominately occupied by women only serves to highlight the cultural significance of patriarchy which Marxism ignores. Even under Marxism this suggests that society would be hesitant to abandon the rotational role of women as the homemaker and therefore ignore how this dynamic would result in women being subjected to a disproportionate burden within society. Which Marxism inherently ignores. As such Marxism fails to address racist and patriarchal institutions which on the surface appear to be race and gender neutral. Racism and Patriarchy are not merely Just cultural ideologies Roles of women and minorities in high leadership positions continue to be lacking.