Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism

by Zillah Eisenstein

Fourteen provocative papers on the oppression of women in capitalist countries, coupled with three articles on the subordinate position of women in two communist countries (Cuba and China). These important, often path-breaking articles are arranged in five basic sections, the titles of which indicate the broad range of issues being considered: Introduction; motherhood, reproduction, and male supremacy; socialist feminist historical analysis; patriarchy in revolutionary society; socialist feminism in America. The underlying thrust of the book is toward integrating the central ideas of radical feminist thought with those pivotal for Marxist or socialist class analysis.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics, Social Justice, Theory, Feminist Theory

394 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Zillah Eisenstein is Professor of Politics at Ithaca College in New York. She has written feminist theory in North America for the past twenty-five years. Her writing is an integral part of her political activism. She writes in order to share and learn with, and from, others engaged in political struggles for social justice. She writes about her work building coalitions across women’s differences: the black/white divide in the US; the struggles of Serb and Muslim women in the war in Bosnia; the needs of women health workers in Cuba; the commitments of environmentalists in Ghana; the relationship between socialists and feminists in union organizing; the struggles against extremist fundamentalisms in Egypt and Afghanistan; the needs of women workers in India.
Throughout her career her books have tracked the rise of neoliberalism both within the US and across the globe. She has documented the demise of liberal democracy and scrutinized the growth of imperial and militarist globalization.

She has also critically written about the attack on affirmative action in the US, the masculinist bias of law, the crisis of breast cancer and AIDS, the racism of patriarchy and the patriarchal structuring of race, the new nationalisms, and corporatist multiculturalism.

Reviews

[Christy Hammer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An "oldie but goldie" I'm packing up to sell off (the metaphor of it all!) but flipping through it again this is still an excellent read on the subjugation of women. This edited collection is mostly articles about female subjugation and exploitation of women in capitalist countries but also has several on women in the 80s in socialist countries (Cuba and China, specifically). The through line is that while traditional sex roles and the gendered division of labor in families do keep women subjugated to men in socialist countries, but that subjugation of women was made much worse under capitalism since women as wage labors are increasingly exploited by capitalists, both in the US and globally.

[Stephanie]

This book definitely shows its age in some instances-- while it includes the statement from the Combahee River Collective, it also includes essays that attempt to provide a "historical overview" of women's socialization as monolithic, with no intersectional frame. Nonetheless, the first section is still all too relevant, showing the shortcomings of both "radical" feminism and orthodox marxism, or rather, where they invite one to read nuances and find a bridging point.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative book and shows it’s age in some points (re: abortion laws today and how some of these ideas have been built upon). This book is easier to understand if you’ve previously read any books by Marx or Engles. They still describe it, but it’s easier to understand and follow their arguments.

My favorite essay was “Woman’s Place Is at the Typewriter: The Femininization of the Clerical Labor Force.” One of the arguments I found compelling was that the passivity of women “makes them ideally suited to the job of carrying out an endless number of routine tasks without a complaint…thus their male boss is spared the unpleasant possibility that his secretary will one day be competing with him for a job.” Another was “the image of the secretary, and the competent mother-wife, who sees her employers every needs and desires.” Another is that women reproduce more labor (through childbearing) and it is this reproduction of the capitalist class. At first this may seem like a weird argument to make, but then it’s tied in with patriarchy, capitalism, and other unpaid forms of labor women perform for their husbands and homes.

These essays also discuss how the separation of the private and public spheres help keep women stuck doing domestic work (private sphere) and that keeps them out of capital gains in the marketplace (public sphere). By separating them, you’re arguing that this domestic work shouldn’t be talked about in the public sphere and it keep it private, meaning that the outside world isn’t “burdened” by seeing and hearing about this domestic work. But if we keep them separated, then how will we really see the oppression women face in the private sphere and how that is connected to public sphere? Many compelling arguments and if you’re thinking about radical/socialist feminism, this is a good book to read!

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly an extensive read on capitalism and patriarchy, how both are ultimately intertwined and must be brought down together. The book is a collections of texts from various feminist authors, with each one of them discussing a particular topic relevant to feminism/socialism. Reading it has been really refreshing: unlike many marxist readings, this book acknowledges the need to be better at integrating feminism into the proletariat struggle as until then (the writings in this books date back to the 70s but the topics are unfortunately still relevant today) marxists tended to put women's liberation aside, arguing the liberation of workers is a fundamental step towards women's liberation. I cannot emphasize how much this infuriates me. The oppression of women is the oldest of its kind, today still women all over the world continue to be killed/raped/discriminated against because of a patriarchy. This is obviously even worse for working class women, but even bourgeois women are not exempt from it. Therefore, delaying their liberation until the liberation of the working class is detrimental and disconnected from reality. For example, the chapter about communist China details how, even though women's conditions were improved with the adoption of socialist measures, they were still prevented from actively participating in socialist organizations. Patriarchy predates capitalism, pinning women's oppression on capitalism alone is simply disingenuous. It is definitely important that we talk more about this issue and that as marxists, we should do a better job at integrating the fight for women's rights into the working class struggle.

[Juan Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book that I regret took me so long to read. I think it’s important for fleshing out thinking as a Marxist to build upon works theories that preceded by making up for its blind spot’s & shortcomings. Not every writer whose work was selected was a Marxist & Zillah Eisenstein makes that clear from the beginning. I don’t think it took anything away from the points made.

It gives you much to think about in regard to Patriarchy being a pre-existing system co-opted by capitalism & how it has been used has changed throughout capitalism’s existence to suit its needs from how the sexual division of labor has changed to the gendered or sex makeup of certain professions depending on the needs of capitalism.

There is also time given to Patriarchy as it functioned in otherwise revolutionary societies, particularly China & Cuba. The only drawback on those critiques is I’m assuming the assumption was that those societies in their periods of Revolution were Marxist in the strictest sense. Unfortunately that isn’t the case as the two examples cited are based on the Stalinist model, which is a distortion & not Marxism at all. Mao in China, being a contemporary of Stalin & being handpicked by him to rise through the ranks, was a class collaborator in the vein of the Stalinist model. He had a government that was made up of rich peasants, bourgeois politicians from China, Chinese capitalists, with influence from or specific direction from capitalists & bourgeois democrats from the west. This had implications on the policies, which meant a lot of policies & social institutions were in fact counterrevolutionary & meant to stabilize the bourgeoisie of China. In lieu of acknowledging this fact means that there are some incorrect conclusions drawn as far as critiquing some of China’s flaws & mistakes.

Cuba I believe faired much better but it being ultimately based on the Stalinist model & lacking internationalism has ultimately doomed it to failure & the capitalist restoration we are witnessing in the wake of Fidel Castro’s death. There were many reforms under which Cuba had to go that likely could’ve been avoided if not for it being based on the Stalinist model. There were many meetings, policies etc that had to be put in place due to the sexual division of labor still being prevalent in the home & unfortunately Cuba did initially fall prey to the homophobic views associated with the Stalinist model which was reflected in their initial outlawing of homosexuality which later had to be reformed based on a documentary I saw on Castro some years ago. I do believe he did attempt to understand his failure in that regard but what it amounted to I cannot say at the moment.

Overall, the book talks about the struggle for a Socialist Feminism, a corresponding analysis to further the Marxist Dialectic, which I think can only be helpful but it is also a young analysis that Socialist Feminists are still fleshing out & we’ll be all the better for it. What’s necessary is for people, particularly men, to listen.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing essays from such vastly differing socioeconomic upbringings and backgrounds, yet all go back to the topic of socialist feminism. Loved it

[butterbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked: some stellar, ground-breaking and hence much-referenced essays lie within. get it straight from the horses mouth, as they say.. Disliked: published 1979. some undesirably intense marxist analysis at inappropriate moments. totally ignores intersections of womens oppression and race.. eisenstein pulls together an excellent compilation of essays, the common threads of which are clearly laid out in her introduction. although many feminists are moving away from the dual systems approach --which sees capitalism and patriarchy as two separate and somewhat autonomous interacting systems--and toward a single system analysis, the ideas in this book very much laid the groundwork for the development of socialist feminist thought and for that reason are valuable.