Silvia Federici has become one of the most widely read ‘socialist feminists’ of the last fifty years. But is her explanation of women’s oppression Marxist, and does it work?
Sarah Vedrovitch examines Federici’s ideas on housework, social reproduction and the origins of capitalism, comparing them with the revolutionary conclusions of Marx and Engels on freeing women. Frederici imagines she is building on Marx and Engels, looking at capitalism through a lens forgotten by orthodox Marxists. But is this actually true?
Books to delve deeper: Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State, The fall of woman, Women, Family and the Russian Revolution
