Women’s oppression and the family

The oppression of women is one of the most reactionary elements of class society. All over the world, every day, women are being exposed to sexism, harassment, and violence.

Marxists have always stood on the frontlines in the fight against this brutal oppression. Yet one the most common prejudices against Marxism is that it views the struggle for women’s emancipation as secondary.

For example, Silvia Federici, who calls herself a Marxist-feminist, criticises Marxism and says Marx’s analysis of capitalism falls short — due to its focus on commodity production, its blindness to the significance of women’s unpaid reproductive work, and because it ignores the sexual division of labour in capitalist accumulation. This could not be further from the truth.

In this talk, Lotta Angantyr will explain what Marxists actually have to say about women’s oppression — both in terms of women’s role in family throughout history, and what we need to do to end it once and for all.

Recommended reading: Marxism and the emancipation of women

Further reading: The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (Engels) / Women, Family, and the Russian Revolution

Recommended listening: