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Socialist Feminism - introduction
• Socialist feminism is often regarded as a “mixture” of different approaches and can
be quite difficult to map out. It initially emerged from women’s liberation
movements, developing themes and issues raised by radical feminism and
Marxism, while criticising aspects of both. The central project which is on going is
the development of a political theory and practice that will pull together the best
insights of radical feminism and of the Marxist traditions, escaping the problems
with each.
• Socialist feminism not only refuses to compromise socialism for the sake of
feminism or feminism for the sake of socialism; it argues that either of these
compromises would be ultimately self-defeating.
Socialist feminism and human nature
• Committed to the Marxist conception of human nature as historically created
through the interrelation between human biology, human society and the physical
environment. This interrelation is mediated by human labour. The specific form of
labour, and people’s relation to the means of production within a given society
creates the distinctive physical and psychological human types characteristic of that
particular society.
• However, socialist feminists argue that the traditional Marxist conception of human
nature is flawed by its failure to recognise explicitly that all human beings in
contemporary society belong not only to a specific class; they also have a specific
sex and are at a specific stage in the life cycle from infancy to death.
• The differences between men and women are both physical and psychological.
• Socialist feminism’s main focus has been not so much on the social construction of
masculine and feminist physical types, but rather of masculine and feminine
character types. The question is posed: “How are ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’
created?” Examining psychoanalysis, socialist feminists argue that it is imposed on
children through different language forms. The structure of gender is enforced early
in life and reinforced through various social institutions such as education, the
media, work, and so on, as people progress through the various stages of the life
cycle. Therefore, men and women are not born into these stereotypes, and
biological determinism can be rejected – socialist feminists argue that because of
this, society can be changed.
• Socialist feminism’s ideal of human fulfilment is not individual autonomy, as
expressed through work, but rather the full development of human potentialities for
free sexual expression, freely bearing children and freely rearing them.
• The goal of socialist feminism is to abolish the social relations that constitute
humans not only as workers and capitalists, but also as women and men. Ideally,
women (and men) will disappear as socially constructed categories, it being argued
that rigid gender structures are extremely important for the maintenance of male
domination.
• It is important to bear in mind that socialist feminists are not committed in advance
to any view on the question of which type of oppression is more fundamental.
Socialist feminist political theory

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• It is argued that the perennial struggle to control society’s resources has always
included a struggle to control the reproductive capacity of women. Using the
conceptual tool of the sexual division of labour, socialist feminists seek to explore
the relations between women’s sexual subordination, specific economic systems,
and specific ways of organising childbearing and childrearing, sexuality and
emotional life.
• With regard to the economic foundations of society, it is argued that traditional
Marxism represents the worldview of men. To account for male dominance,
socialist feminists seek to revise the Marxist conception of what constitutes the
mode of production and the economic base of society.
• Male dominance cannot be explained without reference to procreation. The
organisation of procreation (reproduction) constitutes part of the economic
foundation of society – procreation and sexual practices are forms of human labour,
historically changing rather than biologically determined. Male dominance does not
have a universal form, but is manifested in different ways in different societies
across time.
• Socialist feminists challenge the public/private distinction and argue that it should
be abolished. They argue that public stands for human activity (e.g. economically
rewarded work) and private stands for natural activities (e.g. housework, sex and
procreation). Women are defined by sex and procreation as sex objects and
mothers, with human nature being socially constructed through childbearing and
childrearing. They reject the Marxist view that this construction is (biologically)
natural, placing firm emphasis on social determination.
• For socialist feminists, it is also part of an ideology of male dominance because it
minimises the importance of women’s work outside the market and obscures their
interpenetration and essential unity. Socialist feminists examining the public sphere
claim that women have always worked outside of the private domain. They also say
that women as much as men have been transformed by labour; femininity and
masculinity are not only created by procreation, but also by productive activities. It
is argued that if these productive activities are challenged, human nature can
change.
Socialist feminism and cultural studies
• Socialist feminism, like cultural studies, has been influenced by different theories,
some of are which are briefly outlined below.
• The Frankfurt School examined the role of mass culture as a means of silencing
the working classes, including women. The study showed the ways in which media
representations reinforce women in the nurturing, supportive role in the nuclear
family maintain the class distinctions that sustain capitalism and women’s
secondary status. It is argued that mass culture always functions to impose the
dominant economic ideology. However, some of these studies tended to utilise
rather simple methods of quantitative content analysis.
• Louis Althusser, a French structural Marxist, brought together Marxism and
psychoanalysis to examine “Why do people put up with their situation?” He placed
an emphasis on understanding how female subjectivity is constructed, and how
texts are structured in women’s magazines.
• Roland Barthes talked about a “meaning system” and how language can create
myths. Semiology, a text based analysis, developed from this approach.

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• Associated with work on how advertising can construct meanings, and
representations of women in the media in general, two broad approaches were
developed:
(1) structuralism – how feminine ideology is symbolised or repressed in texts,
including film, often unconsciously.
(2) culturalism – examination of how gender relations and class oppression can
be reinforced due to the norms and values of the systems of meaning created
which impose given identities on groups of people.
Problems for socialist feminism
• Socialist feminists place great emphasis on changing the system, which will
produce a corresponding change in values, which in turn will lead to changes in
human nature. However, in terms of the concept of ‘internalised oppression’, they
often find it difficult to explain how/why some women put up with and go along with
a system of inequalities which undermine and subordinate their position.
• Socialist feminism tends to lack a comprehensive, coherent theoretical framework,
the diverse range of theories, studies and contributions making it extremely difficult
for a united way forward to be agreed upon.
• There is a huge gulf between theory and practice; it can often be seen as too
academic, whereas if change is to ever happen, socialist feminists need to say how
it will occur with due consideration to pragmatic concerns.
• Due to the fact that socialist feminists seem(ed) to be having endless internal
dialogues with themselves, it can often overshadow the very important work into
the way gender oppression is reflected within personal and family relationships –
and within the very structure of liberation movements and parties.