Who profits from sexism?

Scan page 2

Action Barbara Putnam, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year by Socialist Action Publishing Association, 3435 Army St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist Action, 3435 Army St., No. 308, RATES: For one year (12 issues)U.S. 2nd Class: $8, 1st Class: $16; Canada and Mexico 2nd Class: $12, Ist Class: $16; All other countries 2nd Class: $15, Ist Class:

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are ? SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1990 that war had grown to mammoth proportions. Today, after NOW's massive marches in favor of choice showed the politicians who the majority really is, the politicians are changing their stripes to pro-choice. That's their only hope to win an election.

The "We" Generation There's been a flood of articles written by all manner of soothsayers, palm-readers, and pseudo-psychoanalysts decrying the fact that "this generation" is unconcerned about others and only concerned with their own selfish interests. It has become known as the "Yuppie" or "Me" Generation.

Well, the major reason that Operation Rescue is crying the blues is because the "Me" Generation became the "We" Generation in just over a year.

Young people from the campuses and workplaces joined with the Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Alex Chis, Paul Colvin, May May Gong, Malik Business Manager: DAVID KIRSCHNER Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

San Francisco, CA 94110.

$30. (Money orders, checks should be in U.S. dollars.)

expressed in editorials. a hateful picket line to get into an abortion clinic. Others have seen their family income diminished by job discrimination aimed at working women's paychecks.

Despite the ignorance and prejudice that helps to perpetuate sexism, you would think that an educated society would make it a high priority to eradicate this plague and end its widely felt destruction. But any of us who have ever fought for Closing date:

June 25, 1990 women's rights know that the opposite is true. Somebody must be benefiting from sexism. And that somebody must be powerful.

For example, employers only pay women 64 cents out of a dollar they pay to men, on average. The ratio is even worse for the few women in the highest wage brackets, who take home only 58 cents out of a dollar paid to their male peers, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The employer gets to keep the other 36 to 42 cents as extra profit. Multiply that by millions of working women and it is easy to see that employers profit directly and greatly from sexism.

Sexism within the family By digging a little deeper, we can see that the employers get other advantages as well. If women are underpaid and underemployed, it forces many of us to be dependent on men economically. This dependence has often forced women into marriages for our economic survival.

Within the family unit, women tasks.)

What if we didn't perform this role? Society at large would have to provide these services, such as childcare and care of the elderly. And higher costs would ultimately have to be borne by those who control our social wealth: the employers and profit-makers.

Without the tool of sexism, there would be no economic necessity to prod women into compulsory marriage, no degrading ideology to justify keeping us there, and lower profits for the bosses. So whose side do you suppose the employers are on?

Control of reproduction Let's consider another example. If a woman is denied the ability to control her reproductive life, who profits?

Since the development of the birth-control pill in 1960, the number of women working for wages increased by almost 200 percent. But the birth-control pill is not 100 percent safe or effective, so abortion plays an important role in a woman's control of her reproductive life.

Without access to abortion and advances in birth control, child-bearing is still left up to chance. This makes it much harder for a woman to complete her education, enter the work force, and earn a consistent wage. ods of economic crisis. And periodic economic crisis is a built-in feature of capitalism. So once again, it is the employers who gain a needed safety valve and derive a profit by limiting or denying women control over our reproductive lives.

Women are told from the time we are born (and sometimes even before we are born) that we are inferior, not as smart, not as aggressive, not as decisive-and that all of this is by nature or by God's decree.

Who profits from this social abuse and degradation? It provides a convenient rationalization and even a theological justification for denying women justice, dividing the working class, and ensuring an undergroup which can be doubly exploited for the profit of the rich.

These are just a few examples of the ways in which women are exploited. In all cases, when we look beneath the surface of hatred and prejudice that we may experience from men, we find a much more ominous enemy. This enemy is truly motivated by greed and self-interest-regardless of the human toll.

It is against this enemy who uses sexism and class division for his own profit and who controls the wealth of our society that we must take aim in order to win lasting equal rights and a just social order.

----- pull-quotes -----

By Kathy Setian