![]() ![]() He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to women. The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. When Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848, ideas of womens liberation were already a central part of revolutionary socialist theory: Their analysis of womens oppression was not something that was tagged on as an afterthought to their analysis of class society but was integral to it from the very beginning. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels located the origin of womens oppression in the rise of class society. This, the "woman question," has been a source of controversy for well over a century. HOW CAN we end womens oppression? This question can only be answered by posing yet another question: why are women oppressed? Unless we determine the source of womens oppression, we dont know who or what needs changing. ![]() Sharon Smith is a regular columnist for Socialist Worker and the author of a forthcoming book on Marxism and womens liberation, to be published by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. International Socialist Review Issue 2, Fall 1997Įngels and the Origin of Women's Oppression For ISR updates, send us your Email Address ![]()
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