Gender And Class, Production And Reproduction, Exploitation And Oppression

In society these days there is a noticeable difference in the treatment of men and women, the most common examples would be found in the social, business and culturally convention realms. These ways of life have double standards in many different ways. There are many ways to convey the ways of discrimination towards women by men.

Locating a pattern of events that would validate the negative impacts the social world has on women is nearly impossible given the organization of gender roles and expectations of both women and men in 1973. Sociologist and author Dorothy Smith attempts to convey the conflicting roles of the women in relation to men. Writing Women's Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology to serve as a representation of the classic Marxist dilemma. A women, a single mother and a scholar Dorothy has first hand knowledge of the flaws in the gender hierarchy found in a male dominated society. Even so it can not be denied that this perspective casts a shadow over the way In which she chooses to define the social world,women and experiences in her writing. An achieved collective identity consciousness is at the core of Dorothy’s way of thinking. Calling into question the structure of the disciple of Sociology. Expanding she asks the read the central questions,“ What can we ask of this social reality that was previously unavailable was indeed repressed? What happens as we begin to relate it in terms of the disciple? At the crux of her argument of a collective experience she pulls a second objective that is geared toward the analysis of the lack of female representation in the field of sociology. Insinuating that the collective experience of women as a

“The most important force in the remaking of the world is a free motherhood.” This quote from Margaret Sanger highlights many first wave feminists views about the restrictions of motherhood, marriage, and household responsibilities. Many women saw being a mother as a chore or as something out of their control. Sanger fought these restrictions through bringing birth control to the general public who suffered from poverty due to large families. Others, like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, wrote social critiques in her texts “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Herland to bring attention to how society treats women and ideally how motherhood should be. Both of these women believed motherhood was a responsibility of women and they should take it more seriously to create better future generations. This goes beyond the suffrage and equality movement because it dictated that women’s sexual emancipation was equally important as women’s legal emancipation. Being a mother was considered a woman’s most crucial task at this time, therefore the power behind female sexual education and birth control challenged society to feminist.

Women did the same amount of work as men they got paid half of men wages because they were viewed as of less value. Since women were a cheaper labor force they were often hired to do men’s work, which often included working in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. Women became a necessity in the workplace, and they soon realized they did matter and that they deserved to be treated equally. Catherine Beecher was a women’s rights activist who fully believed in that sentiment. In “A Treatise on Domestic Economy” Beecher uses a key component of the Declaration of Independence highlighting that “all men are created equal and have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” She uses that point to emphases the parallels between Democracy and Christianity. Beecher continues on to show the importance of subordination in some relationships. She states that women take a subordinate position in public affairs and in domestic life. Beecher informs readers that shouldn’t be the case. Women have greater importance and thus so, in turn, have greater responsibilities (A Treatise on Domestic Economy 240-244). With that realization, women fought for changes. It wasn’t much longer until political changes were legally required. Women fought for equal treatment in society, as a result, the feminist movement emerged. The Industrial Revolution was important in changing the role of women and getting the feminist movement to the point it is at the

She explains Marx’s argument that capital penetrates and transforms every aspect of life (Brown, 2003, p. 19). Capital remakes everything in its image and reduces every value and activity to its cold rationale (Brown, 2003, p. 19). Essentially all is subject to the relentless submission of the state and the individual, the church and the university, morality, sex, marriage, and leisure practices to this rationale (Brown, 2003, p. 19). Thus liberal democracy especially for women has been compromised and undermined. Within the film, several women who were interviewed mentioned about the rise of union activism. Once you were unionized you were guaranteed benefits and more pay. However to ensure this cold rationale of capital as Marx stated, governmentality was achieved as one African American women, Margaret Wright, described she had gotten increased work hours making it harder for her and many other women to participate in union meetings. In the government’s eyes, unionism was equated with freedom and therefore seen as unpatriotic.

However, before they began to labor for activism, there was a time when they decided to devote their lives to feminism. Only one moment was needed to change Anthony’s career and the world. When at a temperance meeting, Anthony rose to speak but was told she was not allowed to, solely because she was a woman. Due to this injustice, she decided to begin petitioning for women’s rights, as well as temperance and abolition, which she also labored for. Similarly, Friedan had a direct cause to begin feminism, but unlike Anthony, it was a period of several years that inspired her. For a long time, Friedan was a housewife, with three children in the suburbs. These years, torturous for Friedan, showed her how women were expected to give up their careers in favor of cleaning house, and worse, were expected to be happy not bored, sewing and vacuuming all day. In fact, Friedan herself had been a journalist, but she was fired for asking for maternal leave- fired for being a woman. Likewise, Anthony was fired from her job as a teacher, in part because she complained about the fact that she made five times less than men in the same position- again, fired for her sex. Another similarity between the paths of these women was that neither was respected at first. Anthony was a laughingstock for wearing the “Bloomer outfit”, pants that rolled at the calves, and after Friedan wrote her bestselling book on

The economy over many centuries have changed and developed in a variety of ways. One of the most influential economic systems that had developed between the 1700’s and the 1900s is capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system that is controlled by individuals, rather than the government, and requires the working class to use all its resources in order for the capitalist class to retain a profit. One question that still remains is this; how do women’s rights compare to capitalism? There are many theoretical concepts that have helped shape capitalism throughout history. Women’s rights are the rights given to women to express equality when being compared to a man. In the year that capitalism was developed, patriarchy played a dominant role regarding home life and the workplace, which motivated women to take action. Women’s rights are significant in the development of capitalism because it protested the male dominant atmosphere to create opportunity for women to take part as working class and to obtain equal status with a man in regards to everyday living. This resulting in a dramatic change in our economic system. Gender inequalities during the 18th and 20th centuries had a mass contribution to how capitalism developed.

Considering that as of 2010, 45.4% of the Australian labour force comprised of women it would seem that Marx’s socialist perspective is less so equal or relevant in contemporary society.

In this paper, I will explain how the article “The Lady and the Tramp (II): Feminist Welfare Politics, Poor Single Mothers, and the Challenge of Welfare Justice” by Gwendolyn Mink relates to the thematic focus of working women and the Marxist and socialist branch of feminism. In Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, Rosemarie Tong explains that Marxist and socialist feminists understand women’s oppression as a labor issue. Women’s work is not viewed as a productive contribution to society. One of the ways Marxist and socialist feminists sought to improve women’s oppression was through the wages-for-housework campaign of the 1970s, which fought for work done in the domestic sphere to be paid and respected by society. In this same vein, Mink’s article can be viewed as a continuation of sorts of the wages-for-housework campaign. Mink suggests that poor single mothers have the right for their work to be recognized by society and supported economically like the Marxist and socialist feminist in the 1970s.

Throughout our semester together, our Social Issues class has discussed many different aspects of race, class and gender. We have had many opportunities to discuss and share our opinions on different topics and problems we face today. During this course, my outlook on life and other people has changed significantly. The use of projects and papers has further enlightened me to understand the perspective of others. The readings that we have been given each week have proven themselves very beneficial and have assisted greatly in furthering my awareness towards different races, classes and genders.

Social status and structures have definitely shaped the construction and experience of gender inequality. Men and women are constantly analyzed, compared, and grouped together in society. The result of this yields discrepancies in how sexes are viewed by society. Throughout my examination and explanation of gender inequality, I concluded both men and women are victims to gender inequality.

Feminist theory analyzes the gender inequality that women have faced throughout the years due to a patriarchal society. Women were expected to fit the traditional female and conform to the gender norms that society has constructed. According to A Brief Introduction to Critical Theory, “Feminism embodies a way of reading that investigates the text’s investment in or reaction to the patriarchal power structures that have dominated Western culture” (227). Patriarchal power has oppressed women economically, socially, and politically. Women were associated more with domesticity than with politics and financial situations. They were not provided the same educational opportunities as men. These issues have been addressed by people, such as Mary

Gender inequality has been an issue since long before the 1840s, when feminists finally brought the problem to light. Most ancient cultures were societies based on gender inequality, skewed towards male-dominance. Most societies are still mostly patriarchal, in fact. Patriarchy is the root of discrimination between sexes and genders and has been for a very long time.

The goal of this paper is to describe and analyze gender inequality, focusing on the history of feminist ideas. I will start with a basic overview of the entire feminist movement, and will then analyze feminism more specifically. In this analysis I will focus on the different types of feminism. Most notably of these types will be the main groups that consist of socialist feminists, liberal feminists, and radical feminists. I will describe the goals and ideals of these groups along with describing how a functionalist and conflict theorist looks at gender.

Throughout the past few decades, the gender inequality discourse have became a dominant feature of international, national and local policy debate on the subject of economic development. This policy concern has emerged as an area of scholarly research which seeks to show that improving gender equity leads to economic growth.