Women's oppression

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ways borne children, their status has not always been that of a degraded domestic servant subject to man's control and command. Before the rise of class society, the production of the means of life was organized communally and its product shared equally. During this period of primitive communism, there was no exploitation of one group or sex by another because there was no material basis for it. While a sexual division of labor came into existence, the material basis for oppression didn't yet exist.

There was no social surplus. Life in such a society was no Eden because its members depended on natural forces they couldn't control for their survival. However, they were not at the mercy of an elite exploiting class. The origin of women's oppression, her change in status, is intertwined with the rise of this elite, that is, with the rise of class society.

New divisions of labor Women's oppression did not originate in ideas or in psychology or in religious myths, but on solid socio-economic grounds. Although the psychological justification for women's oppression flowed from the social conditions which produced it, the weight of religion, laws, traditions, and social mores later helped convince women that their inferior position was part of the natural order.

The path through which women's subordination took place is pretty clear. The increasing productivity of human labor based on agriculture, livestock domestication, and the rise of new divisions of labor, accumulation of wealth, the patriarchal family was the institution by which care for the unproductive members of society-the old, the sick, and particularly the young-was transferred from the whole to a private small group. It was the primary institution for perpetuating class divisions from one generation to the next. The destruction of the egalitarian and communal traditions and structures of "primitive communism" was essential for the rise of an exploiting class and its private accumulation of wealth.

As the exploitation of human labor came to benefit a privileged few who did not labor, women as a sex became valuable property. Like slaves or cattle, women were a source of wealth. They alone could produce human beings whose labor could be exploited. This gave rise to the patriarchal family in which women were increasingly defined as domestic servants and child-bearers. In fact, the word "family" itself derives from the Latin word "familia"-all the slaves belonging to one man. ma pomen ceased to have an independent role in production. Instead their productive role was determined by the family to which they belonged, by the man to whom they were subordinate. Their livelihood was now dependent upon him.

The state arose concurrent with the rise of the family. Both are institutions of class rule. The state with its police, armies, courts, and jails maintained the rule of a few over the majority. While the state forcibly defended the propertied against the propertyless and states. However, the family's essential nature, as an economic unit which assured women's subordination, did not change. The family fulfills different social and economic requirements for different classes, but its basic function is the same.

In addition to passing on property from one generation to the next, the family serves another function. For the ruling class, it is the least expensive way of reproducing human labor. Making women responsible for the unpaid labor to care for their children assures that the least possible share of society's wealth is used to reproduce the producers. The family teaches and reinforces the sexual division of labor in which women are primarily defined by their childbearing role.

The family also has a repressive and conservative side that reproduces all the hierarchical, authoritarian relationships basic to society as a whole. It fosters the traits necessary for the maintenance of class society, including a competitive attitude and submission to authority. It represses sexuality and ties it, especially for women, to reproduction. In short, the family inculcates all the social and behavioral norms necessary to survive in class society.

Capitalism did not give rise to the family. However, like many pre-existing institutions, capitalism preserved the family and shaped it to its needs. Even though much of the domestic and agricultural labor which once went on inside the family have been eliminated, women still spend a large amount of time in unpaid domestic labor. This is within capitalist framework reforms.

Since the right of women to control their own bodies is a fundamental precondition for women's liberation, access to safe, legal abortion is one of the most important gains extracted by the feminist movement. In more than 20 countries, there has been a marked liberalization of abortion laws.

While the campaign to reverse this victory is led by the most retrograde elements in the bourgeois camp, they only continue to exist because of the support of official government policies. Maintenance of abortion rights in the face of these mounting attacks remains the key task facing today's activists.

The feminist movement isn't isolated from the general situation of the working class and other progressive movements. The bourgeoisie seeks to shift the cost of its crisis onto the working class as a whole and onto working class women in particular.

Real wages of working people have declined so sharply that it now takes two full(continued on next page)

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and feminism (continued from preceding page) id a the and The way lual rom Joe Ryan/Socialist Action rill add to the burden already suffered by opcans, Latinas, Asians, and others.

enforced women's dependence and suborreligion provided the ideological justification for women's inferior status. Role of the family The form of the family evolved with the forms of class rule. The slave-owning states of ancient Greece and Rome had different family forms than the medieval European equally true for the millions of women capitalism drew into the paid labor force.

As the Industrial Revolution forced family after family off the farm and into the mines and factories, it was women and children who most easily found work. The owners consciously hired women to destroy the previous male monopoly on skilled trades and drive down wage levels, using gender to divide the working class and increase their profits. Thus, the factory system was built on the superexploitation of women.

Lower wages were justified on the basis of women's domestic responsibilities. As one apologist for the manufacturers, Dr. Andre Ure, explained, "Factory females have in general much lower wages than males, and they have been pitied on this account with perhaps injudicious sympathy, since the low price of their labor here tends to make household duties their most profitable as well as agreeable occupation and prevents them from being tempted by the mill to abandon the care of their offspring at home. Thus Providence effects its purpose."

Women's oppression in society as a whole is tied to their role in the family. Continued responsibility for childcare, emotional and psychological support for other family members, and economic dependence shape the situation of women. It continues to serve as the justification for keeping women in low-paying jobs. After all, why invest in training someone who might prove an unreliable worker, taking off to care for sick children.

Sometimes women who do manage to enter into better-paying so-called men's jobs find it impossible to keep them because of their other unpaid job as wife and mother.

Two women who were hired the same year I was illustrate my point. The first never made it through probation. She was fired for excessive abstenteeism when she took time off work to be with her two-year-old son who was dying from cancer. The second lasted a year. She quit after being denied an unpaid leave of absence to return to Kentucky to take care of her dying mother.

Women's response

Women have responded to these conditions by creating a movement with a revolutionary dynamic; a movement that has the potential for inspiring a vision of a completely transformed society. After initial attempts to dismiss the women's movement with ridicule and scorn failed, the rulers of the United States and other advanced capitalist countries responded by paying lip service to women's demands while seeking to contain them time wage earners to maintain the same standard of living as a one wage-earner family enjoyed in 1972. That is, women's jobs are an integral part of family income.

Cutbacks in social services hit women doubly. Not only do they suffer as employees in such female-dominated job sectors as social work, childcare, education, and health care, but they also find the burden for these services shifted back to the home where women perform them without pay.

Despite increased employment by women with small children, childcare is being cut back rather than extended. The vaunted voucher system moves toward reprivatizing the educational system-making it a class privilege, not a right. In the name of cost containment, many elderly patients are forced out of hospitals while still needing extensive nursing care.

At the same time, popular magazines and television talk shows bemoan the emotional damage done to latch-key children by working mothers. These myths are brought up with depressing regularity whenever women are exhorted to get back in the kitchen.

Developing links

The picture, however, is not unrelentingly bleak. Links have developed between women's organizations on an international scale. Delegations from several countries participated in the April 9 march in Washington. Abortion rights demonstrations were also held on the same date in a number of countries.

In the United States, women's groups have formed in support of the women of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Feminist leaders have participated in protests against U.S. intervention in Central America, South African apartheid, and racist attacks. They have spoken at rallies for the Eastern Airlines workers and the Pittston coal miners.

Women's peace encampments like those in Greenham Commons (England), and Seneca Falls, (N.Y.), make important connections between the lack of resources for women's needs and the vast resources wasted on the war industry.

One misconception held by some participants in the women's peace movement is that militarism arises from the irrational warlike nature of man and that war is simply a more dramatic expression of male violencelike rape. This is a reflection of the conservative view which says women are more loving, more emotional, and less rational, etc. This confuses cause and effect.

It is not generic male violence which is the root cause of militarism, but the system of production for profit, the political requirements of which include an arms economy. What is clearly irrational for society as a whole makes perfect sense for the small During the British coal strike, "Women Against Pit Closures" played an essential role. One aspect of the fight was the active participation of women on the picketlines, reminiscent of the old movie "Salt of the Earth." And, it produced similar discussions in the mining families over whose turn it was to picket and whose turn to mind the kids. This participation by miners' wives also drew feminists into actively supporting the miners against the government.

Today we see the Daughters of Mother Jones, women relatives of striking Pittston coal miners, participating actively in all aspects of the strike.

Women workers have also played a role in winning support from the labor movement for feminist demands. Active pressure from women members caused the AFL-CIO to reverse its earlier position against the ERA. Affirmative action, paid maternity leave, and IMWA Women's Auxiliary of the United Mine Workı quality affordable childcare are now viewed as labor issues.

Women members have forced the trade unions to examine the health* hazards of VDTs and address these concerns in contract negotiations. Although labor officials try to limit union participation to women's demands on economic questions, they are under increasing pressure to speak out on other feminist issues.

The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) has a longstanding pro-choice position. Numerous official labor publications reported plans for the April 9, 1989, March for Women's Equality/Women's Lives.

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