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Marxism and Women's Liberation
For most women, discrimination and oppression are still very much the lived experience today. While much has changed for women, too much has not. Rising sexism and anger about sexual violence have led to an explosion of ideas and activity around the politics of women's liberation. This book looks at the history and source of women's oppression and at the struggles to overcome it. Using a clear Marxist framework, it focuses on how best we can achieve real liberation.As austerity bites and new debates about oppression rage, Judith Orr steers a path through the history and future of the fight for women's liberation, with all its contradictions. Marxism and Women's Liberation looks at why women are more often to be found on the sticky floor of low pay than above the glass ceiling where the rich reside and the reasons for the assault on the gains of the women's movement. But more than that, it looks at the forces that have the power to change this and revolutionise women's lived experience.
264 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 2015
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November 26, 2015http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2015/1...
Review by Faline Bobier
Marxism and women's liberation by Judith Orr is a must read for feminists and socialists, and really for anyone who wants to understand -- and more importantly, fight to end -- women's oppression. It is a masterful overview of the gains made by successive waves of the women's movement and also how those gains cannot be taken for granted as the system goes into crisis and triggers a backlash.
There could be no more timely reminder than the recent decision to defund Planned Parenthood in the U.S.: the spectacle of the world's wealthiest capitalist country effectively denying access to basic reproductive health care to working class and poor women (and men) in the 21st century.
In this context, one of the quotes Orr includes from Russian revolutionary Lenin could scarcely be more appropriate. Lenin is referring to the gains women made in Russia within one year of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, which overturned centuries of tsarist oppression and appalling conditions for working class and peasant women
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2015/1...
October 13, 2015
An excellent book.
Judith Orr's book ends on the possibility of Revolution to truly liberate women. It is this emphasis that makes the book so inspiring, because it doesn't simply highlight what is wrong in society, but offers a way forward. There is much more that I haven't covered in this review. For instance, Orr looks at contemporary women's movements and discusses some of the ideas that have come out of academia such as intersectionality and privilege theory. She finds these wanting, downplaying as they do the question of class. I also found the section on the question of social reproduction and the debate on wages for housework very useful.
For socialists, radicals and activists today this is a superb book. Its accessible, but takes on big and important debates and questions. It will introduce a new generation to the importance of Marxism as a tool understanding the origins of oppression and how we can fight to build a world where women's oppression is a thing of the past.
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
Judith Orr's book ends on the possibility of Revolution to truly liberate women. It is this emphasis that makes the book so inspiring, because it doesn't simply highlight what is wrong in society, but offers a way forward. There is much more that I haven't covered in this review. For instance, Orr looks at contemporary women's movements and discusses some of the ideas that have come out of academia such as intersectionality and privilege theory. She finds these wanting, downplaying as they do the question of class. I also found the section on the question of social reproduction and the debate on wages for housework very useful.
For socialists, radicals and activists today this is a superb book. Its accessible, but takes on big and important debates and questions. It will introduce a new generation to the importance of Marxism as a tool understanding the origins of oppression and how we can fight to build a world where women's oppression is a thing of the past.
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
May 2, 2022
A helpful potted history 💪
April 9, 2026
This excellent book looks at a wide range of issues, including:
- the continuing inequalities that women face today;
- the current debates about the nature and causes of women’s oppression, and about how best to fight it;
- the origins of women’s oppression with rise of the first class societies;
- how capitalism and the ruling class benefit from the oppression of women, and the role that the family plays in this process;
- the need for working class unity in order to get rid of both capitalist exploitation AND women’s oppression.
The book is an updated and much-expanded version of the author’s earlier little booklet, “Sexism and the System”, and my review here draws heavily on my previous review of that booklet. I must stress that it is well worth buying this book even if you have already read “Sexism and the System”.
The author is a Marxist, and there has been a lot of debate about the relationship between Marxism, feminism and the struggle for women’s liberation. Some feminists claim that by focusing primarily on class conflict, Marxists do not take the fight for women’s equality seriously enough. Judith Orr shows that this is not the case.
Marxists agree with all the various types of feminists that women are oppressed, and Marxists have an excellent record of fighting alongside these feminists in campaigns against the various manifestations of sexism and women’s oppression. But when it comes to understanding what CAUSES women’s oppression and what is the best way to END this oppression, Marxists have a distinctive position, which is outlined in this book.
But what about this word “feminism”? Are Marxists like Judith Orr “feminists”? The problem is that different people use the word to mean different things. If you are just using the word “feminist” to mean a person who fights for equality for women, then Marxists are by definition feminists.
However, the word is usually associated with some form of “patriarchy theory”. Patriarchy does not just mean sexism and women’s oppression; it means “rule by men” or “male power”. The problem with this is that it tends to lead to the conclusion that all men are the problem and that all women, whatever their class, should unite to fight against male power.
But society is not ruled by all men. It is ruled by the capitalist class. Orr shows that it is capitalism, not the whole male sex, which benefits from the oppression of women. Indeed gender inequalities have always been linked to class divisions, ever since the rise of class societies.
Working class women have nothing in common with ruling class women. Ruling class women suffer from sexism, of course, but with their nannies and cleaners they do not face the “double burden” that working class women face. In fact ruling class women are involved in the exploitation of working class women (and working class men). They are not the “sisters” of working class women.
Orr shows that we need to fight sexism in the here and now, but also that the only way to end all types of oppression for good is for the working class – women and men – to unite in struggle and get rid of capitalism.
One final point needs to be made. Some feminists dismiss Marxism because the oppression of women continued in the so-called “communist” countries such as China and the former USSR. But these regimes are/were actually bureaucratic state capitalist tyrannies, not socialist or communist in the genuine sense. Orr mentions the fantastic steps towards women’s liberation that were taken following the Russian Revolution of 1917, but she also shows that these gains did not survive Stalin’s counter-revolution in the 1920s.
- the continuing inequalities that women face today;
- the current debates about the nature and causes of women’s oppression, and about how best to fight it;
- the origins of women’s oppression with rise of the first class societies;
- how capitalism and the ruling class benefit from the oppression of women, and the role that the family plays in this process;
- the need for working class unity in order to get rid of both capitalist exploitation AND women’s oppression.
The book is an updated and much-expanded version of the author’s earlier little booklet, “Sexism and the System”, and my review here draws heavily on my previous review of that booklet. I must stress that it is well worth buying this book even if you have already read “Sexism and the System”.
The author is a Marxist, and there has been a lot of debate about the relationship between Marxism, feminism and the struggle for women’s liberation. Some feminists claim that by focusing primarily on class conflict, Marxists do not take the fight for women’s equality seriously enough. Judith Orr shows that this is not the case.
Marxists agree with all the various types of feminists that women are oppressed, and Marxists have an excellent record of fighting alongside these feminists in campaigns against the various manifestations of sexism and women’s oppression. But when it comes to understanding what CAUSES women’s oppression and what is the best way to END this oppression, Marxists have a distinctive position, which is outlined in this book.
But what about this word “feminism”? Are Marxists like Judith Orr “feminists”? The problem is that different people use the word to mean different things. If you are just using the word “feminist” to mean a person who fights for equality for women, then Marxists are by definition feminists.
However, the word is usually associated with some form of “patriarchy theory”. Patriarchy does not just mean sexism and women’s oppression; it means “rule by men” or “male power”. The problem with this is that it tends to lead to the conclusion that all men are the problem and that all women, whatever their class, should unite to fight against male power.
But society is not ruled by all men. It is ruled by the capitalist class. Orr shows that it is capitalism, not the whole male sex, which benefits from the oppression of women. Indeed gender inequalities have always been linked to class divisions, ever since the rise of class societies.
Working class women have nothing in common with ruling class women. Ruling class women suffer from sexism, of course, but with their nannies and cleaners they do not face the “double burden” that working class women face. In fact ruling class women are involved in the exploitation of working class women (and working class men). They are not the “sisters” of working class women.
Orr shows that we need to fight sexism in the here and now, but also that the only way to end all types of oppression for good is for the working class – women and men – to unite in struggle and get rid of capitalism.
One final point needs to be made. Some feminists dismiss Marxism because the oppression of women continued in the so-called “communist” countries such as China and the former USSR. But these regimes are/were actually bureaucratic state capitalist tyrannies, not socialist or communist in the genuine sense. Orr mentions the fantastic steps towards women’s liberation that were taken following the Russian Revolution of 1917, but she also shows that these gains did not survive Stalin’s counter-revolution in the 1920s.
September 23, 2025
genuinely one of the best books i've read
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews