Marxism and Feminism

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The following speech was presented by Socialist Action National Committee member Shirley Pasholk to the Socialist Action Educational Conference at Kent State University on Aug. 4, 1989.

Background information for this speech was provided from the resolution on women's liberation adopted by the 1979 Eleventh World Congress of the Fourth International. (This resolution is available from Walnut Publishing Co. under the title, "Marxism and Feminism: The Worldwide Struggle for Women's Equality, " $1.50.)

This is an exciting time for the women's movement. In response to increased attacks on abortion rights, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets. While many of these are young women, participating in their first political activity, their ideas have clearly been influenced by the protest movements of the '60s and '70s.

In the 1960s and '70s, as tens of thousands of women participated in political activity for the first time, a whole generation of women discovered that their inferior status is a social phenomenon, not a natural one. The fault lies not in our "stars," nor in our biological makeup, nor in ourselves, but in the society we live in.

Today this same lesson is being graphically illustrated. The oppression of women as a sex became intolerable to women who could see it was not inevitable.

As today's activists debate how best to secure our rights, they will naturally also search for answers as to why slightly more than half the population is discriminated against on the basis of sex. While many theories will be bandied about, we can expect an increased interest in and receptivity to our class analysis of women's oppression.

This talk, in addressing the relationship between Marxism and feminism, will examine the history of women's oppression and point out how the demands for women's equality can be achieved The women's movement of the '60s, "70s, and '80s stands on the shoulders of the late 19th and early 20th-century wave of feminism. This previous struggle won many important democratic rights for women, including the right to vote, the right to receive and dispose of their own wages, the right to own property, and the right to divorce. This extension of democratic rights gave women greater latitude for action.

The roots of today's women's movement lay in the economic and social changes of the post World War II years which produced deepening contradictions in the capitalist economy, the status of women, and in the patriarchal family system.

Women in the workforce The prolonged post-war economic expansion significantly increased the percentage of women in the paid workforce. The introduction of effective birth control made real the possibility that women could control their own bodies. The civil rights movement and the movement against the Vietnam War inspired women to take up the fight for their own rights.

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the rise of consciousness-raising groups, feminist newspapers, and campus and citywide women's liberation organizations.

Women came to see that they were not alone and that women all over the country and, in fact, throughout the world, were beginning to act in a similar fashion. "Sisterhood is powerful" became an international slogan.

The massive Aug. 16, 1970, march for women's equality organized on the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage was followed by numerous pickets, rallies, demonstrations, and meetings on a whole range of feminist issues. These included reproductive rights, childcare, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), affirmative action, campus women's studies departments, violence against women, and more recently, comparable worth.

A recent workshop for women interested in non-traditional jobs demonstrated how established the idea of women's equality has become. Hundreds of women, including many young women just out of high school, attended. Although most wouldn't call themselves feminists, they all believed they had a right to a high-paying union job in a construction trade.

Think of the change from when many of us grew up. As recently as the 1960s, newspaper classified ads were divided into "help wanted men" and "help wanted women." In high schools, shop classes were closed to young women, who instead studied home economics, typing, and shorthand. Young women who voiced an interest in becoming doctors were told to become nurses.

Today, in the steel mill where I work (something else which would have been unthinkable in the '60s) over 25 percent of the college students hired as summer help are women.

Emergence of NOW

The National Organization for Women (NOW), founded in 1965, grew into a true national organization as it spearheaded the campaign for the ERA throughout the country.

With chapters in cities and towns in all 50 states, NOW remains the only truly national activist feminist organization. Last month's national convention was attended by hundreds of young women. They had come to NOW mad as hell over the Webster decision and Operation Rescue's attacks. They were looking for a way to defend their reproductive freedom.

The tremendous outpouring for the March 9, 1986, March for Women's Lives sponsored by NOW was another example of this

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