Feminism and Marxism

by Dorothy Ballan

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Sociology, Politics

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel I scoured the ends of the earth looking for this book, only to have a great comrade and friend in Workers World Party [which I am also in], casually mail me a copy. The final printing of this book is from 1978, 42 years ago, so its very difficult to find.

Dorothy Ballan, a founder of Workers World Party, delivers a watershed text on the history of women's liberation, the pre-capitalist, pre-feudalist, communistic societies that were matriarchal and equal, and the rise of women's oppression that spread from the rise of capitalism. She dissects Engels and his major contributions to Marxism in feminism, and dissects Kate Millett, a boring, reactionary centrist feminist who rejects Marxism and class struggle for metaphysical dogma bullshit.

To my knowledge, this was the only publication Dorothy Ballan made for Workers World Party, in terms of a book, but if she has more materials she made before her death, I'd love to read them.

[Kab]

A lot of space is focused on critiquing Kate Millett's Sexual Politics instead of standing on its own. The antiracism holds up, and the parts about communal social relations that Leslie Feinberg distilled in Transgender Warriors.

[evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

a must read!

[yov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it the way Dorothy Ballan explained how the downfall of matriarchy and patriarchy upsurge is caused by capitalism, oppression by the ruling class, and private property point of view.
For someone who is relatively new to the realm of intersectional feminism and far-left political ideologies, this is a great introductory book especially the introduction or earlier part of the book as it quoted Lenin's famous idea of the communal family (the matriarchy ideology) and how it slowly developed to the cursed phenomenon we are seeing today (monogamy, sexism, patriarchy incl. nuclear family).
Another thing that caught my attention was how the author quoted Kate Millett's infamous Sexual Politics and how it would be translated as "white liberal feminist movement" where it lacks representation of women in socialist countries especially in USSR simply due to her imperialist perspective.

[Mateo Dk · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay, objectively this is a 5 star, sorry for being a dick, but about half of this was centered on dismantling a specific text im unfamiliar with and seemed blatantly idiotic from my pov (the text being dismantled, not ballens text) that at times it felt repetitive or much more intro to marxist feminism than i expected. the historical deconstruction of gendered and sexual oppression was really good though and it is super readable.

[Mandy Rachow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a good read and worth trying. The first half is engaging, but the second half mostly critiques Kate Millett’s work, arguing that she misunderstood Lenin. .. yeah well who’s Millet anyways.

I’m not fully convinced whether oppression simply ends with socialism, and in practice leftist men don’t seem to do much more laundry than right-wing ones. It’s giving once leave private property behind it’ll be alright