BEYOND DOMESTIC LABOR: WOMEN'S OPPRESSION AND THE REPRODUCTION OF LABOR POWER

In the late 1960s, socialist feminism emerged as a trend within the European and North American women's liberation movements. As the trend evolved, it sought to elaborate a theory appropriate to its socialist-feminist politics. While quite close to Marxism and the socialist tradition at the outset, socialist feminists today generally view Marxist theory as inherently incapable of confronting the problem of women's liberation.; This dissertation presents an argument for the power of Marxist theory to analyze the situation of women in the struggle for liberation. It strongly rejects, however, the assumption made by many socialists that the classical Marxist tradition bequeaths a complete analysis of the so-called woman question. In this sense, it could be called a socialist-feminist work, although it does not share the current skepticism among socialist feminists as to the usefulness of Marxist theory. Instead, the text argues that the socialist tradition is deeply flawed, that it has never adequately addressed the question of women, but that Marxism can nevertheless be used to develop a theoretical framework in which to situate the question of women's oppression and liberation.; The dissertation begins with an evaluation of socialist-feminist theory, moves on to a critique of the Marxist theoretical tradition, and closes with a provisional theorization of women's situation within social reproduction. Because the focus throughout is on the material foundations that underpin the oppression of women, certain other aspects are put aside for the moment. In particular, the text does not address directly the important psychological and ideological issues that so often form the main subject of writings on the question of women's liberation. Adequate consideration of these issues must be based on a materialist theory of women's oppression, and attempts to supply such a theory have been deficient. These deficiencies are noted in the two chapters of Part One, which assess the state of existing theoretical work carried out from a generally Marxist perspective. Chapter 1 surveys the contributions of socialist-feminist theory, emphasizing its strengths but also pointing to certain persistent limitations. Chapter 2 considers the inadequacy of the socialist theoretical tradition on the woman question, and suggests that it is in fact very poorly understood. The socialist legacy requires serious re-evaluation. Parts Two and Three therefore undertake a review of major texts of the tradition that pertain to the issues of women's liberation. In Chapters 3, 4, and 5, the work of Marx and Engels is examined in chronological order, revealing its incomplete and contradictory nature as well as its substantial contribution. Chapters 6 and 7 then discuss the manner in which the efforts of the late nineteenth century socialist movement to confront the woman question exacerbated the analytical confusion.; Finally, Part Four returns to the problem of developing an adequate theoretical framework. Chapter 8 argues that the socialist movement failed to establish a stable theoretical framework for its consideration of the woman question. The chapter points out, furthermore, that the socialist legacy actually represents a contradictory mix of different views, never sufficiently clarified, much less elaborated in detail. As a result, socialist efforts to address the problem of women's liberation have been haunted by a hidden debate between two perspectives, only one of which situates the problem fully within the processes of social reproduction. Chapters 9 and 10 therefore take up the task of analyzing the situation of women in terms of the reproduction of labor power, taken as an aspect of overall social reproduction.