The plan

Today – Criticisms of Marxist feminism.

Friday -- Socialist feminism & Iris Young.

Monday (or possibly Wednesday)-- presentation – Alison Jaggar pp. 124 - 127.

• This presentation will look at how Jaggar’s socialist feminism is really a combination of Marxist feminism and Radical feminism.
  
  
• She uses the Marxist concept of alienation to talk about women’s sex, gender and reproduction.
  
  
• Further, she asks, “are women alienated from their intellectual capabilities?”

• This is a short reading, but the presenters should also review Tong’s discussion of alienation (pp.98-100) and Jaggar’s criticism of liberal feminism (pp.38-40). We have covered these readings in class and there are notes on the web.

• Be sure to pay attention to the description of this assignment in the syllabus, especially the requirements of the memo,

• and refer to the presentation grade sheet handout on the class web page.

A Marxist feminist general position:

• Urge women to enter public work force.
• Destroy family as economic unit.
• Women’s “economic well being and independence are primary”.
• Parallel between women workers and women in the family.

Elshtain:

• Marxists feminists have a mixed up view of the family.
• It should be about love, security and comfort.
• In families, money is not the bottom line.
• (Carla -- “easy to say when you have the money…”).
• Family provides a source of diversity and support for new or different opinions.
• Family is important for small children.

Response:

• Marxist feminists distinguish between the family as an economic unit and an emotional unit.
• When this distinction is made, there is not much difference between the MF position and Elshtain’s position.
• This allows family out of choice rather than out of necessity.
• There can be love, security and comfort.
• There can be support for diversity.
• There can be the nurturing of children.
  
  

Questions

· What would a family as an emotional unit but not an economic unit be like?

· Would it be different sitting down to eat breakfast with and emotional rather than an economic family?

· Would there be any difference in the demands that you made of you mother or father in this new kind of family?

Jaggar’s criticism of Marxist feminism:

• MF lets men, or patriarchy, off the hook
• According of MF capitalism is the primary problem and patriarchy is the secondary problem.
• J. points out that women are also, or primarily, oppressed by men or by patriarchy.
• J. believes that exploited workers suffer differently than oppressed housewives and prostitutes.
• Questions:
• What are some of these differences?
• Does this mean that we ought to stop using Marxism as a tool?

• We need to pay attention to capitalism and patriarchy.
• Jaggar points out that women in communist countries face the same oppression as women do in capitalist countries (violence, double work day, lack of reproductive freedom).
• Changing from capitalism to communism didn’t do the trick.
• We need to pay attention to the oppression of women as women (not just as workers) by men as men.
• Questions:
• What are the strengths and weakness of this historical experiment?
• Does the failure of communism to support women mean that we ought to immediately turn to critiques of patriarchy?

Return to class notes page