Women

December 14th 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of a landmark election in
Britain. Following the end of World War I it was the first election in
which women were entitled to vote. The Representation of the People Act
which became law in February 1918 had granted the right to vote on a
restricted basis to women. Only women over 30 would be entitled to
vote. Voting rights for all women aged over 21 did not come until ten
years later, in 1928.

Eleanor Marx was the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. But her place in history isn’t because of her name and who she was related to. Her work, commitment to the cause and self sacrifice earned her that place in her own right.

We republish this article from Socialist Appeal April 1995 on proportionality as part of  the ongoing discussion in the labour movement about reserve places as a means of overcoming discrimination. Since its original publication it has become more evident that proportionality and reserved seats have been used to undermine democracy in the trade union movement, while not resolving the issues of discrimination.

The key role played by women in the 1984-1985 miners’ strike has been an
inspiration to working class women everywhere. Many other issues affecting women
have yet to be fought. Cuts in education, housing, transport and health just to
name a few. Originally published in 1986.

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Working Women’s Day, and to mark
this important event we are publishing this article. It was first printed in
issue Number 5 of ‘In difesa del marxismo’, the theoretical magazine of the
Italian Marxist journal FalceMartello. Although originally written for an
Italian audience we believe it is of interest to labour movement activists and
youth around the world.

Following on from our publication of Part One of this article to commemorate
March 8, International Working Women’s Day, we are publishing Part Two, which
starts with the role of women in the Italian resistance movement and then goes
on to analyse the Italian feminist movement from the Second World War up until
today.

The Irish population in a referendum has just rejected a government
move to further restrict women’s limited access to abortions. This is a
blow for the reactionaries but the right to abortion is still out of
reach for most Irish women, being available only to those who can
afford to travel to Britain.

This is a short article about the terrible conditions women face in Nigeria.

While middle class feminists regard the oppression of women as an
inherent biological trait of men, Marxism explains that the root of
women’s oppression lies not in biology, but in social conditions.
Marxism sees the liberation of working class women as a part of the
struggle for the liberation of the working class as a whole. While
feminists set women against men, the socialist movement attempts to
forge solidarity between male and female workers in a common struggle
against capitalist exploitation.

For Marxists, the root cause of all forms of oppression consists in the division of
society into classes. For many feminists, on the other hand, the oppression of
women is rooted in the nature of men. It is not a social but a biological
phenomenon. This is an entirely static, unscientific and undialectical
conception of the human race. It is an unhistorical vision of the human
condition, from which profoundly pessimistic conclusions must flow. For if we
accept that there is something inherent in men which causes them to
oppress women, it is difficult to see how the present situation will ever be
remedied. The conclusion must be that the oppression of women by men
has always existed and therefore, presumably, will always exist.

Marxism has always been at the forefront of the cause of women’s emancipation. The 8th of March (International Women’s Day) is a red letter day for us as it symbolises the struggle of working class women against capitalism, oppression and discrimination throughout the world. We are publishing an updated version of the document we published last year on March 8, where we outline the first steps given by Marxism to fight for women’s rights, what the first successful revolution meant for the emancipation of women, conditions of women under capitalism both in advanced and Third World countries and pose the question of how to eliminate inequality between men and women for good.