Formative Feminisms

UNIT 1 FORMATIVE FEMINISMS

Regina Papa
Structure

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Objectives
1.3 Liberalism
1.3.1 Conservative Liberals
1.3.2 Liberal Feminist Voices
1.3.3 Liberating Strategies: Education and Employment
1.3.4 Marriage, Motherhood and Career
1.3.5 Critiques of Liberal Feminism

1.4 Marxist Feminism

1.4.1 Historical Materialism
1.4.2 Marx on Women
1.4.3 Production and Reproduction
1.4.4 Family and Mother’s Right
1.4.5 Monogamy
1.4.6 Sexual Division of Labour
1.4.7 Application of Marxian Liberating Strategies
1.4.8 Critique of Marxist Feminism

1.5 Radical Feminism

1.5.1 Patriarchy
1.5.2 Sex and Class
1.5.3 Reproduction
1.5.4 Reproductive Technologies for Liberation
1.5.5 Reproductive Technologies for Enslavement
1.5.6 Forced Motherhood
1.5.7 Women as Sexual Slaves
1.5.8 Liberating Strategies
1.5.9 Critiques of Radical Feminism

1.6 Socialist Feminism

1.6.1 Historical Conception of Biology
1.6.2 Historical Analysis of Gender Division of Labour
1.6.3 Women as Sexual Objects
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Feminist Theories 1.6.4 Alienation
1.6.5 Liberation of Women
1.6.6 Critiques of Socialist Feminism

1.7 Let Us Sum Up

1.8 Glossary
1.9 Unit End Questions
1.10 References
1.11 Suggested Readings

1.1 INTRODUCTION
In this first unit of the block on “Feminist Theories” we will begin by trying to
achieve conceptual clarity regarding the theoretical perspectives on feminism.
Through your study, you will realize that the term ‘Feminism’ is directed at
changing the existing inequalities in the power relations between men and
women. Feminist theories combine description, explanation, and prescription.
Each theory attempts to describe women’s oppression, explains the causes
and consequences, and prescribes strategies for women’s liberation. You will
also see that feminist theories contradict the erroneous, unclear and irrational
way of thinking and writing on the subject of women.

By formative feminisms we mean those early theories and political influences

which came to shape the feminist movements from their inception in the
early part of the 19th and through the 20th centuries. You have already been
introduced to the history of women’s movements in Blocks 1 and 2 of this
course, and some of the terms you will come across in this unit would be
already familiar to you. Here, we will look at the theoretical frameworks of
the formative feminisms so that you can view these in relation to the historical
movements that you have read about earlier. The formative feminisms are
Liberal, Marxist, Radical, and Socialist feminisms. Each theory presented in
this unit has three broad sections - the informing political philosophy, its
theoretical debates, and critiques of the theory.

The information presented here will strengthen your understanding of the

historical shifts that have taken place in Western political thought and their
long reaching impact on feminists from the 17th to the 20th century. You will
also notice how the feminist thinkers of each period have employed similar or
related concepts but contextualized them to their time, deftly challenging
the patriarchal views about women. Moreover, you can also observe how each
feminist theory pushes the frontiers of feminism further and provides space,
scope and energy for new ideas to emerge. Finally, you will find that ‘Feminism’
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is not a single, unidirectional theory. Rather, it branches out to encompass Formative Feminisms

various focal aspects and areas of life as perceived and lived by both men and
women at a particular point of time in history.

1.2 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:

• Recognize and describe the general characteristics of a feminist theory;

• Describe the different political philosophies that inform formative

feminisms (i.e. Liberal, Marxist, Radical, and Socialist) in defining human
nature and analyzing women’s oppression;

• Examine the theoretical debates and thoughts of leading feminist thinkers

and the liberating strategies suggested by each formative feminism; and

• Critique each formative feministic theory so as to understand the historical

rise of successive feminisms.

1.3 LIBERALISM
In Block 1 of this course, you read about the evolution of various women’s
movements in the west as well as in India, and their linkages with a feminist
consciousness or awareness about women’s rights. These movements were
energized by various theoretical perspectives of the time, and the theories in
turn, evolved along with the movements. Therefore, feminist theories gain
meaning when we locate them within broader philosophical and political
perspectives of their times. Let us begin by looking at one such formative
branch of feminism: Liberal Feminism.

Liberal feminism is a logical extension of traditional liberalism that emerged

in the west, out of the rapid social, political and economic transformations of
the late 1600s to 1700s. The period is called ‘The Age of Reason’ or ‘The Age
of Enlightenment’. For liberalists, the uniqueness of human nature is in the
capacity of rationality. Human progress is in the onward march of human
reason and knowledge. Individual dignity, equality, autonomy and self-
fulfillment are esteemed as liberal values. Rationality is the property of
individuals rather than of groups, and this mental capacity is possessed at
least by all men in equal measures.

1.3.1 Conservative Liberals

The consensus among the conservative liberals was that the principles of
rational individualism are not applicable to women. They inherited Aristotle’s
reductionism that “We should look on the female as being as it were a deformity,
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Feminist Theories though one which occurs in the ordinary course of nature” (Aristotle, 1953).
Thinkers like Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu and above all Rousseau wrote
that women are biologically suited to play the roles of wives and mothers.
They are by nature, emotional and passionate, and hence unsuited for work in
the public sphere. The ‘Normative Dualism’ of Des Cartes divided mind from
body. Rationality and associated mental capacities were ascribed to men
while women, passionate and emotional, were identified with the body. Jean
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was committed to sexual dimorphism, in
constructing a systematic difference between ‘rational man’ and ‘emotional
woman’ and setting up complementary roles for men and women.

1.3.2 Liberal Feminist Voices

The 18th century liberal feminists argued that women as well as men had
natural rights. The 19th century feminists extended the arguments in favour of
equal rights for women under the law to own property and to vote. The
contemporary liberal feminists adopt the theory of welfare state and demand
that the State should actively pursue social reforms and ensure equal
opportunities for women. They oppose laws that establish different rights for
women and for men.

It was left to the early liberal feminists to argue that women were indeed
capable of reasoning. Attempts were made to demonstrate that the liberal
ideas of the Enlightenment could be applied to women as well as to men.
Women’s voices were heard from both sides of the Atlantic demanding equal
treatment with men. Let us discuss the views of some important liberal
feminists as follows.

i) Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Liberal tradition emerged with the growth of capitalism. Mary
Wollstonecraft was writing at a time when the economic and social position
of European women was very low. The bourgeois women of the capitalist
society were confined within the unproductive, idle condition of domestic
life. Rose Marie Tong describes the situation in her Feminist Thought:
“These women were the first to find themselves left at home with little
productive, or income-generating, work to do. Married to wealthy
professional and entrepreneurial men, these women had no incentive to
work …” (Tong, 1989, p. 13-14).

Wollstonecraft compared these women to the “feathered race”- the birds

in cages who do nothing but plume themselves and “stalk with mock
majesty from perch to perch” (Wollstonecraft, 1792). She surmised that
if men were also caged in as women are, they too would be pleasure
336 seeking and pleasure loving and be overtly emotional and passionate.
ii) Harriet Taylor (1807-1850) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Formative Feminisms

Fifty years later, Harriet Taylor Mill (1807-1858) and her close friend John
Stuart Mill (1806-1873) whom she married later, defended women’s rights
in a series of essays they published jointly and separately. Both Taylor
and Mill differed from Wollstonecraft in demanding for women not only
the same education as men to achieve sexual liberty, but also the civil
liberties and economic activities that men enjoy. Harriet Taylor was the
primary author of Enfranchisement of Women (1851) and Mill was the
author of Subjection of Women (1869). These works provided the first
systematic defense of women’s rights.

Mill and Harriet provided an Agenda for the next 200 years of liberal
feminism by synthesizing both utilitarianism and libertarianism (Nye, 1988,
p. 12-13). Utilitarians envisaged a society in which there is the greatest
good for the greatest number of people while Libertarians claimed that
freedom is the natural right of every human being. Mill and Harriet argued
that women should be granted all political privileges, including the vote
and the right to run for public office.

iii) Betty Friedan (1929-2006)

The leading figure in the 20th century liberal feminism is Betty Friedan
(1929-2006), an American activist and writer. Her book The Feminine
Mystique (1974), is credited with sparking of the ‘second wave’ of
feminism. The second wave of feminists believed that women’s liberation
meant sexual equality and gender justice, and that social change can be
achieved by constructing legislation and regulating employment practices.
The ‘feminine mystique’ is the idea that women can find satisfaction
exclusively in the traditional role of wife and Friedan attempts to explode
this myth. Friedan analyzes the emptiness that middle class, suburban,
white, heterosexual housewives experience in their domestic life.
Frustrated, beleaguered, and bored, these women turn to adorning
themselves. They hope in vain that sex will free them. Friedan calls this
frustration ‘a problem that has no name’. Friedan emphasizes that women
should be freed from oppressive gender roles everywhere, in the academy,
the forum, and the market place.

The National Organization for Women, co-founded by Friedan in 1966, aimed

to bring women into the mainstream of American society in full partnership
with men. Friedan joined other leading feminists (including Gloria Steinem,
Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bella Abzug, and Myrlie Evers-Williams)
in founding the ‘National Women’s Political Caucus’ in 1971.
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Feminist Theories Liberal feminists are of two categories: i). Classical feminists who fought for
the removal of discriminatory laws and ii). Welfare feminists who argued that
government should take appropriate action to eliminate socio-economic, as
well as legal impediments to women’s progress. In general, both are known to
depend heavily on legal remedies.

1.3.3 Liberating Strategies: Education and Employment

Liberal feminists believed that given equal education, women will be equally
rational as men. This premise is explained by traditional and modern liberal
feminists. Wollstonecraft forcefully argued against Rousseau’s view that women
are defective in reasoning. In his book, Emile, ou de l’éducation (Emile, or
On Education) published in 1762, Rousseau emphasized the inegalitarian view
that “… the entire education of women must be relative to men. To please
them, to be useful to them, to be loved and honored by them, to rear them
when they are young, to care for them when they are grown up, to counsel
and console, to make their lives pleasant and charming, these are the duties
of women at all times” (Cited in Okin, 1983, p. 71). Rousseau also assumed
that little girls always liked to sew rather than to read and write. Wollstonecraft
repeatedly argued that women ought to be given the same education as men
so that they would be capable of making free choices and assume responsibility
for their own development.

Valerie Bryson points out that Wollstonecraft’s quarrel with Rousseau is fourfold
(Bryson, 1992, p.22-23):

• First, Wollstonecraft was convinced that the women of upper classes

in her time were frivolous and vain not by nature but because of their
socialization.

• Second, she affirms that women are equally capable of and entitled to
a rational education.

• Third, the virtue of being a good wife or mother cannot be imposed on

women; it must be freely chosen by women themselves and women
should be given knowledge and education so as to make rational choices
to be good wives and mothers.

• Fourth, if men and women are of equal worth, they must also have
equal rights. Wollstonecraft advocates political liberalism that
campaigns for women’s suffrage and legal rights and equal participation
in politics and paid employment with men.

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According to Betty Friedan, many educated middle-class women of her time Formative Feminisms

suffered from depression because of the ambiguous life imposed on them. As

education developed their potentialities, domestic life demanded their
fulfillment in childbearing and childrearing. Friedan advised the suburban
housewives to get college education and then enter into full time, public
work-force. As education is intimately connected to employment and
financial independence, liberal feminists like Betty Friedan emphasized
its importance for women.

Employment and career will enable women to earn and become economically
independent of their husbands. J.S. Mill opined that by keeping women in an
unnatural state, the nature of women has become an artificial thing. He wrote
in The Subjection of Women that the power of earning is essential for the
dignity of a woman. Friedan argued that equality and human dignity are not
possible for women if they are not able to earn and ‘only economic
independence can free a woman to marry for love’. According to Taylor,
women could be fully liberated if they were to work outside the home. So the
right to vote is not enough but participation in the free market of capitalist
society is necessary. A woman who is employed contributes to the family and
also wins respect. But Mill was of the view that a fully liberated woman enters
and leaves the labour market at will.

1.3.4 Marriage, Motherhood and Career

J.S. Mill believed that even if a woman receives the same education, economic
opportunities and civil liberties, she will prefer marriage and motherhood
over other competing occupations. But Taylor claimed that given a free choice,
a woman will choose a career in arts, business or politics instead of marriage
and motherhood.

Friedan insisted on women entering a career. She argued that if a woman

spends her whole time in the role of a wife or mother and has no time for a
career, she will not develop into a full person. But Friedan failed to explain
how to combine marriage and motherhood with a career without bringing in
major structural changes within, as well as, outside the family. Later, Friedan
admitted that it is not easy to combine marriage and career. Instead of calling
women back into the private sphere, she exhorted women to propel the
women’s movement and work with men for the desired changes in the
‘mainstream’. Liberal feminists also demanded equal rights for voting,
reproduction, abortion and child healthcare, and reacted against sexual
harassment.

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Feminist Theories 1.3.5 Critiques of Liberal Feminism
The central aim of liberal feminists was to achieve for women those traits
associated with males. It did not occur to them to question the value of
traditional male attributes. This erroneously assumes that women can become
like men if they set their minds to it; that most women want to become like
men and that all women should aspire to masculine values. Liberal feminists
worked for women’s equality without aiming at changing the structures of
existing institutions. Their emphasis on individualism prevents people from
coming together as a community. It separates an autonomous individual from
others, thus creating a ‘political solipsism’. Though liberal feminists argued
that women should be economically independent of men, they failed to provide
women with adequate strategies to achieve an independent status. Even after
gaining all sorts of legal rights, women will be still left in a condition of
economic dependency damaging to liberation.

Elevating the activities of the mind over those of the body and identifying
women with the body, as well as with ‘woman-specific’ work like child care,
child rearing, care of the sick and the aged, lead to the devaluation of such
activities since they are perceived as forms of unskilled, unpaid labour,
associated with servicing the despised body and requiring less mental work.

On the whole, we could say that Wollstonecraft, Taylor, Mill and Friedan sent
women out into public realm, though without summoning men into the private
domain. Despite these limitations, liberal feminists have contributed immensely
in improving the quality of life for women.

Check Your Progress: Can you find any striking similarities between
our contemporary Indian social activists and the Liberal feminists
mentioned above, especially in regards to their emphasis on education,
equality, career and strategies? Think about this paradox: Even highly
educated women in India are sometimes placed in situations where
they must confine themselves to certain expected and traditional roles.
Despite wanting to use their education to contribute in meaningful
ways to society, they may not be able to do so. Is education, then, a
negative capability? Are you satisfied with the current status of social
equality (irrespective of caste, creed, region, language and sex) as
enshrined in our Constitution? (Think about equality not only between
men and women but also among different categories of people at
different strata of society.) Can we say that there is only formal equality
and no substantial equity? Feminism searches for ‘equity’ step by
step in human history.
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 Formative Feminisms
1.4 MARXIST FEMINISM
Marxism provides a perspective completely different from liberalism. Marxism
denies rationality as the essence of human nature. Rather, it offers a theory
called historical materialism. The unfortunate effect of economic dependence
of women was recognized by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-
1895). Following Marx and Engels, Marxist feminists believe that women are
oppressed by capitalism, and that gender inequality will disappear when
capitalism is replaced by socialism and a classless society.

1.4.1 Historical Materialism

Marx talked about the ‘materialist conception of history’, which was later
referred to as ‘historical materialism’ by Engels. Human beings are viewed as
a biological species. Thus, human nature itself changes as modes of production
and economic relationships change. It is the mode of production that
determines the social consciousness of a given society.

Human praxis is a cooperative social activity involving some division of labour.

It is historically determined. The worker’s conception of what needs to be
done, how it should be done, and when it has to be done successfully are
determined by previous social experience and the social context within which
the individual is situated. Marx expresses that the sum total of relations of
production constitutes the economic structure of society, and on this economic
structure is built the legal and political superstructure. On the whole, the
mode of production conditions the social, political and intellectual life process
in general (Marx, 1973). Marx criticized capitalism as he felt that in this
contemporary social structure, the necessity of survival and class domination
deter human freedom and development. Freedom to Marxists is a social
achievement. The capitalist organization of production alienates the workers
from the product of their work, from the production process, from their self-
realization and alienates them from each other.

1.4.2 Marx on Women

Although Marx does pay some attention to women’s subordination under
capitalism, it was the overthrow of capitalism and not sexual oppression
which was the main agenda of Marx. It was left to Engels to undertake a
systematic analysis of women’s oppression after Marx’s death. Engels’ work
The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, published in 1884,
has been accepted as a classic statement by generations of Marxists.

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Feminist Theories Whenever the women’s situation is discussed by Marxists, it refers to women’s
subordination under capitalism. Since capitalist society is composed of different
classes, therefore, all women are not identical. Working class women are
different from bourgeois women in a capitalist class society as class divisions
cut across sex lines.

Marxist feminists believe that when forms of feminisms do not account for
social consciousness, they lead to forms of false consciousness of bourgeois
women. According to Marxist feminists, women, as a class, should not focus
their struggle against men but against the bourgeois system under capitalism.
This is a collective work of both men and women of the working class. While
Marxist theory provides Marxist feminists with useful systematically
organized tools to carry out an important critique of patriarchal capitalism,
it stops short of providing a comprehensive framework from within which
many other issues related to women’s place in society could be addressed.

1.4.3 Production and Reproduction

Engels records that a social organization of a given society in a particular
period in history is determined by ‘the production and reproduction of
immediate life’. This implies that along with production of the means for
existence, reproduction of human beings is equally considered. In a capitalist
society, oppression impacts both the development of labour and that of the
family. With the focus on reproduction, women’s role in family and work under
capitalism also enters into the Marxian debate.

Household work, the traditional work area of women, is defined as

reproduction. In a capitalist society, the economic relations are such that the
social tasks involved with reproduction, such as childbearing, childrearing,
caring the sick and the aged, cooking, cleaning and other forms of household
work, are considered economically cheap and unprofitable. Correspondingly,
women as the performers of unprofitable tasks are also undermined in their
value and contribution. You will read more on the issue of women and work,
and women and household labour in related units of other courses.

1.4.4 Family and Mother Right

Engels traces the evolution of family from the earlier savage society to the
present day in his major work The Origin of the Family, Private Property and
the State. He uses the anthropological work of Lewis Morgan in formulating
his theory of family. Morgan distinguishes two historical periods prior to
civilizations - savagery and barbarism (hunting state). In these earliest societies,
sexual relationships had been totally promiscuous and unregulated. The original
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family consisted of a state of group marriage. In all forms of group marriage, Formative Feminisms

only the mother of the child was known and not the father. This made the ‘the
mother right’ as the dominant principle in the family organization.

The society moved from hunting state to the herding of cattle and cultivation
of plants. In these primitive societies, the relations between sexes were based
on equality. Women were responsible for domestic work and men for agriculture
and husbandry. Women reigned supreme in the home and the descent was
calculated through the female line. Then came the domestication of animals
and the breeding of herds, metal-working, weaving and agriculture. There
was surplus and slaves were engaged for labour power. Some men gained
more property and more power. The acquisition of new wealth led to men’s
position becoming higher than women’s. Men wanted to pass their property
on to their children. ‘Mother right’ was overthrown. Engels’ strongly comments
in The Origin (1972, p. 120) that “the overthrow of mother right was the
world historical defeat of the female sex”. The traditional inheritance from
father to his children was ensured through strict monogamy.

1.4.5 Monogamy
Monogamous marriage is an offshoot of the rise of class society. The first class
opposition and oppression coincides with the sexual opposition of man and
woman in marriage. The oppositions and contradictions are found in this
marriage. Engels argues that prostitution, adultery and gender subordination
are the outcome of monogamy. Marriage itself becomes a crass form of
prostitution for women. According to Engels, the only difference between a
married woman and a prostitute is that the former does not sell her body
piecemeal like a courtesan, but sells it once and for all into slavery. Thus, the
woman historically became a mere commodity, a possession of her husband,
and an instrument for the production of children. In the middle class capitalist
family, the woman was forced to sell herself sexually and brought down to a
position of powerlessness. Engels holds that within the family, the man
represents the bourgeois and the wife represents the proletariat.

1.4.6 Sexual Division of Labour

Despite Marxist ideals promoting equality of women as a class, there are
contradictions within Marxist theory based on stereotypical assumption about
women’s bodies and their roles. The sexual division of labour, from the Marxist
perspective, is natural because it is biologically determined. Marx and Engels
state that the social division of labour originates in ‘the division of labour in
the sexual act’. It means that differences of age and sex naturally determine
the division of labour. Marx suggests that women may be excluded from those
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Feminist Theories branches of industry which may be unhealthy or objectionable morally to the
female body. In brief, it means that women’s capacity to enter public industry
is limited both by biological and by moral factors. The final conclusion may
be thus: despite Marxian advocacy for women to enter public industry,
there is a suggestion that there could never be a complete abolition of the
sexual division of labour, either in the family, in the work place, or in bed.
Though gender differences would be muted under socialism, a psychological
equality between men and women would be impossible.

1.4.7 Application of Marxian Liberating Strategies

Marxists believe that the abolition of private property will end sexual
oppression, and that economic supremacy will disappear of itself. The first
condition for the liberation of woman, according to Engels, is “to bring the
whole female sex back into public industry” and collectivize housework and
childcare. The second condition for liberation is the social revolution which
Engels hoped would occur soon.

Marx’s analytical tools are used by feminists in debates relating to women’s

labour force. According to Marxist theory, classes develop based on work
relations. In the case of women, it is not surprising that socialist feminists
focused on domestic labour since “this work was done almost exclusively by
women and was fundamentally different from the work done by either sex in
formal economy” (Armstrong, 1990, p.68). Charnie Guettel, in her work
Marxism and Feminism (1974, p.52), argued that what women do as housework
is outside the formal economy. Jobs performed outside the home are valued
as productive as they earn profit in a capitalist society, while the unpaid
consumption work at home that women do is regarded as unproductive. Guettel
maintained that class differences among women seem to reflect their husbands’
relations to production, thus sustaining their double subordination. Hence,
to overcome their subordination as women, women must work for the
socialization of domestic work and enter the labour force. Such a labour
force, with more equitable distribution of roles between the genders, can
subsequently transform the productive system.

Margaret Benston, in her pioneering article “The Political Economy of women’s

Liberation” (1969), explored women’s domestic labour further. Citing the
Marxist distinction between use value and exchange value, she maintained
that women as a group are responsible for the production of simple use values
associated with homes and families. Unlike the paid work of men, which
produces exchange value as well as use value, the unpaid work of women is
perceived as superfluous from the standpoint of capital because it produces
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only use value. It acquires a secondary status as it does not directly produce Formative Feminisms

for the market or command wages. Contrary to the above, Benston argued
that women’s labour is useful in two ways:

• First, it fulfills the need for closeness, community and warm secure
relationships and stabilizes the entire economy; and

• Second, it serves to make women what Marx would call as ‘a reserve

army’ of labour , contributing to the transient economy in capitalism.

Benston was the first to use the reserve army concept in case of women. She
explained how women are called upon to fill vacancies in the job market
whenever needed and sent home to do their domestic work when their services
are no longer required. Women are the last to be hired and the first to be
fired and are hired to do low-paid work when the demand for workers arises
in the market.

As you have seen above, Marxist/ socialist feminists strive to develop a

theoretical account of different types of oppression resulting from the interface
of gender, race/ethnicity, and regionality/ nationality with class. While making
use of Marxist concepts to understand the position of women, Marxist feminists
have also transformed these concepts. Most recent works demonstrate that
work done in the home, including bearing and rearing of children, must be
included in any notion of class; moreover, any conceptualization of class is
inadequate if it does not take into account sex, domestic work, race, and
region.

In the above section, you have obtained a broad overview of some of the ways
in which feminists have applied Marxist theories and ideas in trying to achieve
a more gender-just society. In the next section, let us look at some critiques
of these theoretical perspectives so that we can understand the limitations of
Marxist feminism.

1.4.8 Critiques of Marxist Feminism

It has been argued by critics of Marxism that Marxist categories are sex-blind.
This accusation is based on the view that although traditional Marxists were
able to explain how capitalism separated the homestead from the workplace,
they failed to explain why capitalism assigned homestead to women and
workplace to men.

Engels’ assumption that the family pattern has been universal in all societies
is questionable. The claim that there was sexual equality in primitive societies
is also dubious. Engel’s views on early man’s desire to leave his property to his
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Feminist Theories heirs have been challenged for it is likely that women were the first cultivators
and provided the surplus value.

They also said that in a socialist society, housework and childcare should be
collectivized. But they have not mentioned who should be doing these
household tasks - men or women. The implication is that these tasks will be
done by women which reinforce the sexual division of labour that the Marxists
want to abolish.

The dual work that women do in combining paid work with domestic
responsibility and its implications on women has not been analyzed by Engels
though collectivization of domestic work is recommended. He also failed to
explain the sexual oppression of women workers and male dominance in the
work place.

Check Your Progress: What, according to you, are the advantages of

using Marxist theories for achieving feminist goals? On what basis
has Marxist feminism been criticized?

1.5 RADICAL FEMINISM

Radical feminism is the most intriguing of all formal feminist theories we have
studied in this unit. Issues about women’s lives that had been taboo for
discussion till the second half of the 20th century, i.e., the female body, sex,
violence, reproduction, are brought into focus for frank and in depth analysis.
Radical feminism covers a wide spectrum of variant views on the sexual
oppression of women. The new concepts and terminologies that Radical
feminism has helped to generate are now used liberally by global institutions,
governments, and policymakers. Words such as ‘gender’, ‘patriarchy’, and
‘objectification’ might have been familiar to you even though you may not
have been familiar with their nuances and significance. Radical feminism can
easily be misconstrued if one does not understand its basic concepts and the
significance of these concepts.

Radical feminism was started in the late 1960s by some college-educated

middle class women and some New Leftists who became dissatisfied with
what they considered to be conservative demands and male dominance, which
were contrary to the principles of egalitarianism and altruism in their
organizations.

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The term ‘radical’ refers to ‘roots’ and therefore implies going to the roots. Formative Feminisms

Radical feminists claim that the root of all forms of oppressions is in the
oppression of women. It includes the following meanings: “that historically
women were the first oppressed group; that women’s oppression is
international; that women’s oppression is the hardest form of oppression to
eradicate; that enormous suffering result for women; and that women’s
oppression provides a conceptual model for understanding all forms of
oppression” (Jaggar & Rothenberg, 1984). According to radical feminists, the
social structure that most oppresses women is called ‘patriarchy’.

1.5.1 Patriarchy
Through patriarchy men appropriate all super social roles and keep women in
subordinate and exploited position. Literally, patriarchy means ‘rule by
fathers’. Prior to the emergence of Radical feminism, the term was used
mostly by anthropologists in a narrower sense of an old man with absolute
power over wives, children, herds, and dependents. Radical feminists use the
term ‘patriarchy’ to address an autonomous, social, historical, and political
force, a “sexual system of power in which the male possesses the superior
power and economic privilege” (Eisenstein, 1979, p.17). Patriarchy refers to
all systems of male dominance and appears to be everywhere. For a more
detailed discussion of patriarchy, it would help you to refer to the unit on
“Women & Patriarchy” (Unit 1 of Block 1) in the course on “Gender and Power”.

1.5.2 Sex and Class

Radical feminists argue that women everywhere share a common oppression,
and they constitute a class by themselves as opposed to men. “Sex class is so
deep as to be invisible” are the opening words of Shulamith Firestone’s work
The Dialectic of Sex (1970). Unlike liberals and Marxists, radical feminists pay
attention to the ways in which men control reproduction, in other words,
women’s bodies. The control of men over women may be in varied forms:
restrictive contraception, sterilization, abortion laws, pornography and other
kinds of violence against women. When a person is deprived of power over
her own body, it is deprivation of her humanity. Moreover, men construct
women’s sexuality, not for women’s needs, but for their own interests.

1.5.3 Reproduction
Firestone was influenced by Marxism but believed that Marx’s and Engel’s
interpretation is too narrow to explain women’s subordination. Unlike the
Marxists, she argues that it is the relations of reproduction, and not those of
production, that form the basis of society. Hence she redefines historical
materialism of Engels, by replacing ‘materialism’ by ‘sex’, ‘economic classes’
347
Feminist Theories by ‘biological classes’ and ‘ production’ by ‘reproduction’(Firestone, 1970,
p.4):

Historical materialism, is that view of the course of history which

seeks the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all historic
events in the dialectic of sex: the division of society into two distinct
biological classes for procreative reproduction, and the struggles of
these classes with one another; in the changes in the modes of
marriage, reproduction and child care created by these struggles; in
the connected development of other physically-differentiated classes
[castes]; and in the first division of labor based on sex which developed
into the [economic-cultural] class system.

Thus, Firestone sees that the first division of labour is in the differing
reproductive roles of men and women. The radical feminists conclude that
the root of women’s oppression is biological and therefore women’s
liberation requires a biological revolution. A section of radical feminists are
convinced that modern reproductive technologies promote such a revolution.

1.5.4 Reproductive Technologies for Liberation

Modern reproductive technologies of contraception, sterilization, and abortion
for the first time in history provide the possibility for biological revolution.

… the artificial insemination by donor , in vitro fertilization, and

embryo transfer are also quiet widely used. Due to these technologies
and due to contracted motherhood, a woman who begets a child
need not bear it, and a woman who bears a child need not rear it.
Furthermore, as soon as it is possible to beget a child in vitro and
bring it to term ex utero, women’s role in the reproductive process
will be no larger than men’s. … (Tong, 1989, p.74).

Radical feminists claim that sex roles will be eliminated when both men and
women stop playing substantially different roles and finally, distinctions
between the roles of woman-the-reproducer and man-the-producer will
disappear.

1.5.5 Reproductive Technologies for Enslavement

Another group of radical feminists including Mary O’Brien and Adrienne Rich
contend that modern reproductive technologies are a trap for women though
they may promise untapped freedom. Men who are alienated from reproductive
process, try to have power over women’s reproductive process as compensation.

Male doctors and psychologists write down the rules, tell women how to feel
348 and when to feel and how to act during pregnancy and delivery. Thus
‘pregnancy’ and ‘birthing’ are not lived experiences for women. In this regard, Formative Feminisms

Mary O’Brien comments that modern reproductive technologies are men’s

strategies to get ‘a child-for-nothing’ (O’Brien, 1981, p.58-60).

1.5.6 Forced Motherhood

Radical feminists assert that women are forced to be mothers. Patriarchy
declares that motherhood is the only way for a woman’s self-fulfillment. A
childless woman is pitied and described as ‘unfeminine’. Women are expected
to perform the same kinds of nurturing to adults as they do to their children.
Patriarchy determines the conditions of their motherhood which imposes the
responsibility of nurturance on women without giving them the power of
nurturance. Feminist mothers may thus experience a sense of ambivalence in
bringing up their sons amidst patriarchal ideology which promotes the ideas
of sons as future masters.

1.5.7 Women as Sexual Slaves

For radical feminists, women under patriarchy are not only mothers but also
sexual slaves. Women’s sexuality is controlled forcefully by men and her
‘honour’ violated. Even rape laws are often framed to protect the interests of
men rather than of women. An obvious example of this would be that nowhere
is a man convicted for raping his wife, although this may be a common
occurrence. It is because of the assumption that the woman belongs to her
husband. Prostitution is another form of sexual coercion. In all of these
instances, what comes to the fore is the idea that women lack control over
their own bodies. Radical feminists suggest that women should be liberated
from forced motherhood, sexual slavery, and regain control over their bodies.

1.5.8 Liberating Strategies

Promoting female culture and revalorization of females will liberate women
from their sexual and attendant enslavement. Radical feminism maintains
that every society has two cultures: the visible male culture and the invisible
female culture. Religion, government, economy, and all social institutions
represent the male view and interests. In this male culture, men envy women’s
reproductive processes and female creative energy. Radical feminists state
that this results in sexual politics and leads to the notion of the ‘personal is
political’. The emergence of femininity in girls and masculinity in boys is not
due to the psychological differences in their parents but due to the difference
in power between their mothers and fathers. As such, this is the de-biologising
of the Freudian theory of penis envy.

Radical feminists Mary Daly and Adrienne Rich advocate celebration of ‘woman
culture’ which will change the basic structure of society, substituting new
values. These values are qualities that characterize femaleness – empathy, 349
Feminist Theories intuitiveness, adaptability, and awareness of growth as process, and a capacity
to respond emotionally as well as rationally. The ‘revalorisation’ of women’s
qualities is carried out through women’s art and language. It includes the
creation of a new world view, seen from women’s perspectives, and expressed
through journalism, radio, music, film, dance, poetry, painting, photography,
sculpture and literature. The first task of radical feminists is to reconstruct
patriarchal language. This process is called ‘naming’. Mary Daly defines feminist
naming as a deliberate confrontation with language structures. Daly believes
that the activity of being able to name things (oneself, or anything in the
world around us) through language is indicative of power, and that women
have had that power of naming stolen from them. Feminist naming thus
begins with women invoking and exerting this power, and confronting traditional
language structures.

Radical feminists believe that women are oppressed primarily in the realm of
so-called intimate relations and suggest shaking off heterosexual marriage and
recommend lesbianism as the full commitment of women to their own sex.

1.5.9 Critiques of Radical Feminism

Radical feminists contend that patriarchy is a trans-cultural universal
phenomenon. However, we may note that oppression of women and enslaving
practices have different meanings in different societies and are contextualized.
Female separatism as envisaged by the radical feminists excludes men who
form half of the world’s population. Exclusion of men cannot bring about a
revolution, as any such revolution must take into account that women and
men co-exist within the patriarchal structure which needs to be transformed.
Radical feminists are not concerned with the material reasons for men’s
subjugation of women. They demonstrate vividly how men enslave women
but do not attempt to explain why men do so. The important contribution of
Radical feminism is the conviction that while the sexuality of women might
have been a source of danger in the past, it can become a locus of power for
women in the future. You would find it interesting to note the manner in
which radical feminists use intellectual and analytical tools to subvert given
misconceptions about sexuality and about biology of women.

1.6 SOCIALIST FEMINISM

One step removed from Radical feminism is Socialist feminism. In order to
examine the situation of women, both of these formative feminisms use sex
and society as their lenses, although with the help of different feminist
perspectives. Socialist Feminism is an offshoot of women’s movement in the
1970s. It is a synthesis of the best insights of both Marxist and radical feminists.
350
It blends capitalism and patriarchy; production and reproduction. Productive Formative Feminisms

activity for socialist feminists is not only provision for basic material needs of
food, clothing, and shelter, but also the reproductive and sexual work that is
done by women at home.

Socialist feminism adopts two kinds of approach: dual-systems theory and

unified-systems theory. The dual systems theorists like Juliet Mitchell treat
patriarchy and capitalism as separate forms of social relations but dialectically
related to each other while the unified –systems theorists like Hartman and
Sheila Rowbotham insist that patriarchy and capitalism are not separate but
together form one unified concept.

1.6.1 Historical Conception of Biology

Social Feminists believe that biology is gendered as well as sexed. This implies
that while we may be born with specific sexual anatomies (female/ male/
trans-gendered), our bodies are also submitted to a social gendering process
from the time of our birth. So we could say that we are born into an already
gender codified society. In terms of the notion of gender, we can thus infer
that infants are bisexual (androgynous) at birth. But they are transformed
into boys and girls with rigid masculine and feminine character structures,
through a systematic gender-structuring which continues throughout life. The
physical differences between men and women are partially determined by
the work they do. Iris Young remarks that women in sexist society are physically
handicapped because they have less mobility and strictures on physical
development. Marian Lowe has investigated that social conditions bring
variations in menstruation and menopause. Juliet Mitchell, Jane Flex, Gayle
Rubin, Nancy Chodorow, and Dorothy Dinnerstein have all worked to prove
that the masculine and feminine character types are structured and established
by specific social forms of work practices. On the whole, socialist feminists
believe that our ‘inner lives’, our bodies and behavior are structured by socially
imposed gender-structuring. You will read much more about the relationships
between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ in various other courses of this programme. You
would find it especially helpful to read the unit on “Sex and Gender” (Unit 2,
Block 1) in the course on “Gender & Power”, where these concepts, and the
debates around them, are discussed in greater detail.

The activities in women’s private life such as sexuality, childbearing and

childrearing cannot be understood apart from society. Zillah Eisenstein argues
that giving birth to a child is termed ‘motherhood’ only if it conforms to the
social norm defining the relations of marriage and the family. Otherwise, the
child is ‘illegitimate’ and the act ‘adultery’.
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Feminist Theories 1.6.2 Historical Analysis of the Gender Division of Labour
Socialist feminism claims that human beings are constantly recreating
themselves through sexual division of labour. Iris Young (1981) provides a
historical analysis of the gender division of labour. In pre-capitalist times,
there existed an economic partnership between wives and husbands. With
the rise of capitalism came the public-private split. Capitalism identified men
as the ‘primary work force’ and women as the ‘secondary work force’. As
women were needed at home, they were confined to domestic work. Women
became a large reserve army of labour, unemployed, low paid and less skilled
secondary workforce, needed to keep wages low and meet unexpected demands
in the workforce. In the third world economies, women gradually move from
the primary work force to secondary work force.

Even today, the categories of work where women congregate are the lowest
paid. Women work mostly as clerical workers, saleswomen, social workers,
nurses and teachers. This confirms the ideological perception of women as
subservient, nurturing, and sexy. It forces women to depend on men. Women
wage earners face problems common to all workers and in addition suffer
sexual harassment.

In the 1970s, socialist feminists began to demand due wages for household
work that women do. Margaret Benston’s “The Political Economy of Women’s
Liberation” exposed domestic labour as a crucial form of women’s work and
many more domestic labour studies followed to gain public recognition and
legitimacy for women’s work at home (Benston, 1969).

1.6.3 Women as Sexual Objects

A woman is confronted by words, gestures, comments and threats of violence
which express male dominance. Alison Jaggar (1983) sums up the socialist
feminists’ views on how women are treated as sexual objects:

Women are viewed relentlessly as sexual objects, whether or not they

welcome sexual interest, and they are subject continually to sexual
assaults and harassment. In addition, economic survival requires most
women to present themselves in a way that is sexually pleasing to men:
male superiors penalize women who seem to be “punishing” or defying
men through their appearance: much of women’s work is sexualized:
and, in the end, the best chance of economic security for most women
remains the sale of their sexuality in marriage. … (p. 108).

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It is an ideological mystification to consider women primarily as sex objects. Formative Feminisms

Women have always worked outside procreation. They have provided food
and services to the family and the larger society outside. It is men who control
the expression of women’s sexuality.

1.6.4 Alienation
Women, like wage workers, are alienated in sexual situations. Alison Jaggar
proposes alienation as the theoretical framework which accommodates the
insights of Marxist, radical, psychoanalytical and liberal feminisms (Jaggar,
1983, p.353).

A wage worker is alienated from the product upon which he works. In the
same way, a woman is alienated from her body, the product upon which she
works. A woman has little say on her body. She adorns herself, diets and
dresses but all these activities are done for men. A woman is alienated from
the product of her reproductive labour, that is, her child. A woman does not
have the power to decide how many children she should have and when.
Motherhood can also be an alienating experience for a woman as women may
be alienated from the process of their reproductive labour. It is obstetricians
who take total control of the birthing process. Childbearing like childrearing
is an alienating experience. “The social relations of contemporary motherhood
make it impossible for her to see the child as a whole person, part of a larger
community to which both mother and child belong” (Jaggar, 1983, p.315).
Finally, women are alienated from their intellectual capacities. To the extent
men take control of producing and distributing knowledge and the process,
women are not at ease in the academy. Ann Foreman (1977) declares that
femininity itself is alienation.

1.6.5 Liberation of Women

Mitchell argues that defeat of capitalism alone cannot liberate women unless
it goes with the defeat of patriarchy. Biological or economic revolution will
not liberate women. It is only an outer expression. Mitchell considers the
psychoanalytical view that sex oppression is deeper at the unconscious level.
Hence she advocates primarily a psychological revolution, and states that
attitudes toward women will never really change so long as the female and
male psychology are dominated by dominant phallic symbols which extol male
culture, male authority and male control over women.

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Feminist Theories 1.6.6 Critiques of Socialist Feminism
Socialist feminism is criticized for being neither revolutionary nor radical
enough. It underplays the significance of capitalist forms of exploitation. It
has failed to create lasting solutions to the problem of female economic and
social exploitation. One distinguishing feature of socialist feminism is its
emphasis on democratic control of procreation. But it fails to explain what
democratization of procreation would mean in practice. However, in its favour,
one could say that socialist feminism has an inspiring vision of an androgynous
society in which the distinction between ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ no
longer exists.

Your reading of various formative feminisms, Liberal, Marxist, Radical and

Socialist, would have given you an understanding of the wonderful chemistry
that exists between the progressive theories on which each of these was based.
In the light of this, we could say that Socialist feminism is the most evident
indicator in terms of showing how paradigms shift when feminist equations
(specifically, Radical and Marxist) work on each other in understanding women’s
tangible and intangible oppressions.

1.7 LET US SUM UP

In this unit, we discussed and analyzed four formative feminist theories. You
would have realized that feminist theories address fundamental issues in
feminist thought - the origins of women’s universal oppression, gendered and
problematized social and institutional relations, and the political actions to
be taken to ameliorate these injustices. The four types of formative feminisms
that you have read about included - Liberal, Marxist, Radical and Socialist.
You have also seen that each feminist theory remains partial, imperfect, and
incomplete. However, all of these different feminisms have contributed in
valuable ways in enhancing our understanding of women’s oppression and
each offers us a rich perspective on how to struggle against this oppression.
We need to draw on the strengths of all these theories in our ongoing efforts
to deepen our critical understanding of these important issues.

Finally, the formative feminisms are predominantly of white, middle-class

origins. From the viewpoint and historical perception of Indian women, we
can find both commonalities and differences when we compare the situations
discussed here with those in India. In other units of this course, you have
already read specifically about women’s movements in India (Blocks 1 & 2).
Hence, to an Indian student, it will be an interesting exercise to read through
this unit with a critical enquiry and apply the tools to your own life and those
354 around you.
 Formative Feminisms
1.8 GLOSSARY
Alienation : It refers to the estrangement of individuals from
other and a particular process. Humanbeings,
according to Marx, are alienated from their work,
their product, humanity and other people in the
capitalist mode of living. Labour as well as our
existence becomes an object in this process.

Capitalism : It refers to an economic system in which means

of production, distribution, and exchange of
wealth are in the hands of private individuals or
corporations who invest, own, and maintain it.
Capitalists are people who have capital - money,
assets, land, investment, and so on.

Feminism : A social, economic, and political commitment

directed at changing the existing power relations
between women and men in society in order to
fight against gender injustice and to promote
equal rights and opportunities for all.

Liberal feminism : Assumes that the inequality of women stems from

the denial to them of equal rights and from their
learned reluctance to exercise such rights.

Liberalism : Constitutes a philosophy based on the principle

that every person is to be given equal
opportunities and civil rights.

Marxist feminism : Sees women’s oppression as rooted not in sexism

but in capitalism, with the introduction of private
property. Class divisions cut across sex lines.

Mother-Right : A term associated with matrilineal descent. It

was popularized by Bachofen, who said that
matrilineal kinship combined with matriarchy
was the universal first stage of human
development. Lewis Henry Morgan, Engels and
Marx used mother-right for the stage of human
history which preceded patrilineal descent and
patriarchies.

355
Feminist Theories Patriarchy : A sexual system of power in which men as a
category appropriate all superior social roles and
keep women as a category in subordinate and
exploited positions.

Radical feminism : Believes that women’s oppression is the first form

of oppression in human history and the most
widespread. It is deep rooted and sexual under
the form of life called patriarchy.

Reproduction : Childbearing and childrearing responsibilities and

associated domestic tasks done by women.

Sexual division of labour: A universal practice in which necessary work and

tasks are divided up according to gender. Men
get some of the jobs and women get some of
the jobs, based on traditional roles and
expectations.

Socialist feminism : Sets as its goal transforming basic structural

arrangements of society so that categories of
class, gender, sexuality, and race no longer act
as barriers to equal sharing of resources. Class
and gender intersect in shaping women’s lives.

1.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss the relevance of any one formative feminist theory in the context
of your own life experiences. Do you think your analysis from your chosen
perspective can make your life more meaningful? Has it made clear to
you any issue you have been confused about earlier? Would you like to
make any improvement(s) on the theory? Analyse and discuss.

2) Based on your reading of this unit, comment on the following using a

feminist perspective:

“The University Education Commission of 1948-1949 headed by Dr.

Radhakrishnan recommended that education of women should be such as
to suit those pretty accomplishments such as drawing, painting or the
like skills”.

3) How do ‘caste’ and ‘class’ feed into each other in oppressing ‘women’ of
lower socio-economic categories in your society? Explain with specific
instances using an apt feminist theory for your analysis.
356
4) What is your view about surrogate motherhood which is based on Formative Feminisms

technology? Does it liberate or enslave women? Explain.

5) What values could you add to the household work of women revolving
around consumption and reproduction ?

6) Discuss how the concept of ‘Alienation’ is used by Marxist and radical

feminists. Use examples from Indian society to see the extent of the
relevance of this concept in the lives of Indian women.

7) Explain ‘household labour’ in the context of the gender division of labour.

1.10 REFERENCES
Aristotle (1953). The Generation of Animals, vol. 1 and 4. Trans. A.L. Peck.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Armstrong, Pat & Hugh Armstrong (1990). Theorizing Women’s Work. Toronto:
Garamond Press.

Benston, Margaret (1969, September 4). ‘The Political Economy of Women’s

Liberation’. Monthly Review, xxi, 13-27.

Bryson, Valerie (1992). Feminist Political Theory. Hamphshire: Macmillan.

Daly, Mary (1978). Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston:

Beacon Press.

Elliot, Patricia & Nancy Mandell (1995). ‘Feminist Theories’. In Nancy Mandell
(Ed.), Feminist Issues: Race, Class, and Sexuality. (pp.3-31). Scarborough:
Prentice Hall Canada Inc.

Engels, Friederich (1884). The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the
State. Trans. Alec West. Eleanor Burke Leacock (1972). (Ed.). New York:
International Publishers.

Firestone, Shulamith (1970). The Dialectic of Sex. New York: Bantam Books.

Friedan, Betty (1974). The Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell.

Foreman, Ann (1977). Femininity as Alienation: Women and the Family in

Marxism and Psychoanalysis. London: Pluto Press.

Guettel, Charnie (1974). Marxism and Feminism. Toronto: The Women’s Press.

Okin, Susan M.(1983). Hunter College Women’s Studies Collective, Women’s

Realities, Women’s Choices. New York: Oxford University Press.

357
Feminist Theories Jaggar, Alison M. (1983). Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Sussex: Harvest
Press.

Jaggar, Alison & Rothenberg, Paula (1984). Feminist Frameworks: Alternative

Theoretical Accounts of the Relations Between Women and Men. (2nd Ed.).
New York: MacGraw Hill.

Mandell, Nancy (1995). (Ed.). Feminist Issues: Race, Class, and Sexuality.
Scarborough: Prentice Hall Canada Inc.

Marx, Karl & Engels, Friederich (1970). The German Ideology. New York:
International Publishers.

Marx, Karl & Engels, Friederich (1973). Preface to the Capital: A Critique of
Political Economy. New York: Vintage Books.

Mill, Harriet Taylor (1970). ‘Enfranchisement of Women’. In Alice S.Rossi

(Eds), Essays on Sex Equality. (pp.89-122). Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.

Mill, John Stuart (1970). ‘The Subjection of Women’. In Alice S.Rossi ( Eds.),
Essays on Sex Equality. (pp.123-242). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Millett, Kate (1970). Sexual Politics. New York: Avon Books.

Mitchell, Juliet (1975). Psychoanalysis and Feminism. New York: Vintage Books.

Nye, Andrea (1988). Feminist Theory and Philosophy of Man. New York:
Routledge & Kegan Paul.

O’Brien (1981). The Politics of Reproduction. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Rich, Adrienne (1977). Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and

Institution. New York: Bantam.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1762). Emile. Barbara Foxley (Trans. 1966). New
York: Dutton.

Rowbotham, Shiela (1973). Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s world. Baltimore,

Md: Penguin Books.

Tong, Rosemary (1989; rpt.1992). Feminist Thought: Comprehensive

Introduction. London: Routledge.

Wollstonecraft (1975). Vindication of the Rights of Women. Carol H.Poston

(Ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

Young, Iris (1981). ‘Beyond the Unhappy Marriage: A Critique of the Dual System
Theory’. In Lydia Sergent (Ed.), Women and Revolution: A Discussion of the
Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.
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 Formative Feminisms
1.11 SUGGESTED READINGS
Butler, Judith & Scott, Joan W. (1992). (Eds.). Feminists Theorize the Political.
New York and London: Routledge.

Eisenstein, Zillah (1979). (Ed.). Socialist Feminism and the Case for Capitalist
Patriarchy. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Eisenstein, Zillah (1981). The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism. New York:
Longman.

Hartmann, Heidi (1981). ‘The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism:

Toward a More Progressive Union’. In Lydia Sergent (Eds.), Women and
Revolution: A Discussion of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism.
(pp.1-41). Boston: South End Press.

Hooks, Bell (1984). Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre. Boston: South
End Press.

Mitchell, Juliet (1973). Woman’s Estate. New York: Vintage.

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