Marxist feminism

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Marxist feminism is a branch of feminism that uses theoretical foundations from the field of Marxism . Marxist feminism stands up above all for the overall social rights of women and sees these as a prerequisite for or an element of overcoming the capitalist system . Likewise, the question of unpaid domestic and reproductive work , especially in connection with capitalist production, is a central issue. Marxist feminism is often linked to the labor movement and is traditionally close to communist parties or the left wing of social democracy . In the Federal Republic of Germany , the Democratic Women's Initiative has long been an important representative of Marxist-oriented feminism. The transition between Marxist feminism and the socialist women's movement is fluid.

Mutual rejection

The term Marxist feminism seems contradictory: Marxist-oriented groups, especially the Democratic Women's Initiative , rejected feminist tendencies, even a meeting with feminists at events, let alone cooperation with groups suspected of feminism, this nationwide organization avoided.

The Socialist Women's Association West Berlin also saw a danger in feminism: In 1973, Frigga Haug wrote the article 'Defense of the women's movement against feminism' for Das Argument at the same time as the opening of the women's center in West Berlin . In retrospect, Frigga Haug justifies this mistrust of feminist ideas that came from the USA: “Ideas that should seduce women to deviate from the right path of the revolution, that the women's movement bourgeoisie, takes care of things that bring nothing instead of the proper ones To change society and to get to the root of the problems. ”Marxists feared that a feminist women's movement would divide the working class. The SFB supplemented the slogan 'Women together are strong' with 'Women and men together are stronger'.

Contrasting structures

The feminists of the women's centers came from the undogmatic left , while the Marxists were usually tied to an orthodox ( DKP , Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin ) or Maoist party ( Communist League ). Feminists organized themselves autonomously (i.e. also independently of parties) and grassroots democracy and rejected political training and claimed to allow a greater diversity of opinion (see Women's Center West Berlin ). Marxist classics were well known to the feminists of the women's centers, but they rejected them as guides because they found them out of date.

On the other hand, a year-long political training course was compulsory for the Socialist Women's Association ( August Bebel , Friedrich Engels , Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ) and for the Democratic Women's Initiative , the topics were specified directly by the DKP , which incidentally also provided the DFI's management committee.

Feminists, on the other hand, found their topics in their own lives and work and adhered to the thesis that private matters are also political . They also addressed their own previously taboo injuries ( rape , sexual abuse , domestic violence ) and developed new fields of work from them. In the 1970s, for example, feminists created for women: advice centers , women's emergency calls , self-defense associations , health centers, festivals and rock bands - with the exception of women's shelters, everything on their own.

Contrasting cultures

In her essay "Perspectives of a Socialist Feminism", Frigga Haug - central figure of the Socialist Women's Association - regretted the narrowed perspective in 1988:

“We were not experienced enough to trust our experiences, and too theoretical to recognize the strengths of spontaneous practices , as demonstrated in feminist actions. These revealed the everyday mediation of domination and referred to the petty bourgeois in us as well, by questioning our ordinary way of life. [...] Everyday life is the realm of norms and values , morals , customs and traditions , language and wordless communication. And here is the battleground of the feminist movement. She does not formulate the contradictions (like the socialists) in such a way that the contradictions to the prevailing social regulation , to the market and contract come to the fore, but instead women raise the question of what is mutually valid normality and insofar perpetuates oppression. "

Looking back, Frigga Haug stated in 1988 about the feminist movement:

"The women of the new movement were above all conspicuous and thus exceeded the limits of our education for the social being 'woman': restraint, modesty, inconspicuousness, modesty."

She also observed:

“[...] freed from socialist fetters, the new autonomous movement hurried lightly through the country. Soon there was no village without a women's group, no area that was not recorded […]. It also opened up new spaces in which domination was located, liberation rehearsed. [...] The movement took hold of the entire way of life . "

In their own organization, however, it was difficult to politicize women

"..Because we (socialists) and bother had us on our way, the question of women to inspire to ask - again there were questions of women's education, the kindergarten , the occupation, the struggle for workers' problem (we had enough proletarians in our ranks and who actually belonged to it?) "

Intersectionality as an alternative

Within the feminist movement, the (partly supposed) Marxist or Marxist-Leninist subordination of the “ women's question ” was questioned as a secondary contradiction to the so-called main contradiction , namely that between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat . In the course of these debates, approaches were developed which understand the analysis categories class and gender as interacting without the compulsory determination of one category by the other (cf. intersectionality ). In doing so, predominantly those dominance relationships are considered which result from the interplay of the two categories: The discrimination of working women on the basis of their gender role, both in the domestic sphere (unequal distribution of house and reproductive work, etc.) and in capitalist production (less wages for the same work, so-called women and men jobs, glass ceiling , etc.).

Post-structural-post-modern perspective as an alternative

Since the mid-1990s, starting from the English-speaking world, efforts have been made to reintegrate the analysis of power relations into feminist studies. More strongly influenced by the linguistic turn and postmodernism , followers of poststructuralist feminism, in contrast to the original approach of Marxist feminism, try to focus on the effectiveness of ideology on social relations. It is more about the analysis of texts and discourses than about economic contexts.

Freudo Marxist feminism

Shulamith Firestone's manifesto "The dialectics of sex" (German: "Women's liberation and sexual revolution") ties in with a Freudo- Marxism of Reich imprint and goes beyond it to a materialist feminism. Especially within the 1968 student movement there were also approaches based on the Frankfurt School with a proximity to Freudo Marxism.

literature

  • Frigga Haug : Keyword “Marxism-Feminism”, in: Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism , Volume 8 / II, Column 1882–1899, Argument-Verlag, Hamburg 2015.
  • Frigga Haug: The path explored while walking - Marxism-Feminism , Hamburg 2015.
  • Prokla editorial team: 'Materialistic feminism . In: PROKLA . No. 174 , March 2014, p. 2–10 ( prokla.de [accessed November 20, 2019]).
  • Paths of Marxism-Feminism , The Argument 314, 2015.
  • Cristina Perincioli : Berlin is becoming feminist. The best that remained of the 1968 movement. Querverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89656-232-6 , pp. 163–171. Chapter “Re-examine old struggles with Frigga Haug” (1996).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tailor-made for the DKP: Open letter to the Democratic Women’s Initiative / Astrid Matthiae. - [Electronic ed.]. In: Courage: Berliner Frauenzeitung. - 4 (1979), ISSN 0176-1102 H. 4, pp. 33-35.
  2. ↑ Frigga Haug: Defense of the women's movement against feminism, Das Argument, Vol. 15 (1973), H. 83 ISSN 0004-1157.
  3. ↑ Cristina Perincioli: Berlin is becoming feminist. The best that remained of the 1968 movement. Querverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89656-232-6 , p. 169.
  4. ↑ Roswitha Burgard, Gaby Karsten: The fairy tale uncles of the women's question: Friedrich Engels and August Bebel, Verlag subrosa, Berlin 1975, B003BLU78U.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Rudzio: The erosion of demarcation: On the relationship between the democratic left and communists in the Federal Republic of Germany, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 1988, ISBN 978-3531120454 , p. 25.
  6. ↑ Haug, Frigga: Perspectives of a socialist feminism. In: Autonome Frauenredaktion (Ed.): Women's Movements in the World, Vol. 1 Western Europe, Argument-Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 9783886191505 , p. 40.
  7. ↑ Haug, Frigga: Perspectives of a socialist feminism. In: Autonome Frauenredaktion (Ed.): Women's Movements in the World, Vol. 1 Western Europe, Argument-Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 9783886191505 , p. 34.