To mark International Women's Day, 1988, 'Class Struggle' is printing this article, the first in a series. Although the league has for many years paid lip service to the import ance of deve 1opi ng and putting into practice a policy on the question of women, it has made little progress so far. This series of articles is intended to help the debate and we welcome comments and criticisms from our readers.
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IU~VOIJJ'l'IONJ.\UY (~O~I~IlJNlST lEiUiUE . . I ... • • ,,.. ' ~ ••• - ~ • 1 l ' J ' ' • ~ • • ..... • • • • • • - ._ \ • ~ ! GLIMPSIES INTO HERSTORY...... - - - · ------· --:---~-- - ORIGINS .OF WOMEN'S OP;;;~~ION ' the society - that we 1 i ve i n·l and that women's liberation The beginnings of women ' s sub- 1 · is an essential component of I ordination by man is partially / . the struggle to overthrow lost in time . But it seems imperialism. It is also clear ' likely that it came about at that the forms of women's different stages in different . oppression change with the diff social orgar.isations, and was erent societies that they are always an oppression based on ! part of. However, what the above violence. We have to try and , examples show is that the exact take a non~Eurocentric view origins of women's oppression of this and study the position , are an important area of debate of women in different societies, 1 which recent research has shown at different times in history. • to be more complex than has The traditional Marxist line often been held by Marxists. Women's oppression affects half ' holds that the start of women's the world's pcpulation. Women oppression coincides with the all over the globe are victims deve1opment of class society GLIMPSES INTO HERSTORY of sexism, violer.ce and male and private property. Women's 1 domination. And yet their In 1 ater hi story, there are . role as the bearers and rearers we 11-documented ex amp 1es from oppression remains largely of children, with the essential invisible. around the world, of the impos tasks of food gathering or ition of women's oppression 1, Women ~ave resisted exploitation growing, clothing and nursing by force. In Europe, in the ! "in all its various . guises ·--· that these entai 1, earned them so-called Dark Ages, there is through the centuries. And equa 1 i ty and respect in pre- ; evidence that women had built yet this history is largely class society, where survival . up great skills in healing, forgotten, hidden er ridiculed. was the name of the -game. But as midwives, in controlling Women do two thirds of all when the production of surplus reproduction and performing labour in the world and also 1ed to its appropriation by abortions. But these large one class at the expense of numbers of strong and i ndepend the labour of reprod~ction. And yet women ' s wc:•rl< is given ~nother, things changed. ent women were a threat to the emerging bourgeois order. little value and everywhere i ~ · women's role,. which had pre marginalised. Between the 14th and 18th ·vi ous ly ensured their equa 1 i ty, centuries, the male guilds and The "new" women ' s mcvement which now ensured their inequality, rising bourgeoisie managed to : has grown up since the 1960's, by excluding them from social push craftswomen · out of the ' both in the West and in Third production. On this basis, sphere of production and : World countries, has produced a complex and pervasive ideology millions of women, mostly poor 1 a wealth of feminist lit!rature of ma 1e superiority and fema 1e and rura 1 women, were for and hcs been active on many inferiority has developed. . centuries ~rsecuted and burnt practical issues which affect However, this view has been · as witches. They were a 1 so ,1 women in their daily lives. challenged by Third World ; used as scapegoats to divert i Sections of this movement have Marxists such as Samir Amin the unrest of poor peop 1e away · explored both the origins of and Chei kh Ant a Di op, as we 11 from the church and state. women's subordination and the as by many feminists. Di op' s The scale of this persecution links between women's oppression ~esearches suggest that although is undoubtedly much higher than and the international division 1n pastoral and nomadic societ history would have us believe. of labour as well as the wider For example, one prosecutor, ies patriarchy was established 1 issues of . its relation ____ _to very early, i.t was not so in I Benedi kt Carpzov, of Leipzig I · present day imperialism, the the agricultural societies which signed 20,000 death sentences j exploitation of the Third world were established in most parts against witches. and the working class. of Africa. · In these societies, i In some parts of the world there T which were based on subsistence · 1 In m~ny 1 i berati on movements was relative equality between } and 1n socialist countries, agriculture, with hunting as , the sexes before they were women have come to the fore . a luxury extra, a matriarchal ~olonised. In others, But the relationship between system was estab 1 i shed which 1mperialism intensified socialism and the oppression survives to the present day existing oppression of women. in some areas. of women remains ~ theoretically : T~ere are, for example, descrip . unexplored, with · only a few In the.: great ancient ci~His • t1ons of Burma when the British exceptions. ' ations. of Egypt and Ethiopja; first arrived, which tell of women · held high positions<'of a society of freedom and For 'fi"Omen in this country - equality for women, and a peace . whether they suffer from ex state. power . and there were several ·'"·influential queens, ful society based on Buddhism. p~oitation · ~tt the form of such as Queen· Hatshepsut. In oit seems the same was true in v1oler.ce and: rape~ . poor pay Senegal, at a similar time, and prospects, lack of" reprod addition, there were matriarchal uctive ·t< r.fghts ·or simply ·· from _kin- structures and great import · wh ere : women traders were in high positions of power: their undervalued position in ance and respect were given f a sick society - these questions to women. These matriarchal There is no doubt : ··that . the . systems were overthrown by out are of fundamental importance. Western colonial powers, Brit~i~ · Yet 'Class Struggle' has, over side influences: by invas.ion, 1 . especially, systematically des- the·· years,. managed to report influence of religions such as Islam and later by the col~ troyed such societies and raped on them only · occasionally and both · the countries, and the ~ analyse them even less. • , onial invasions of European powers and their Christian women. As' well as the physical· We hope that this · series will religion. and economic carnage, women. open the debate on women's were also exploited as potential cp~ression, , and especially its It wi 11 be argued 1at er' in.. 'this ~ breeders, and at . different ' relation tQ.: class and national f.. series that women's oppression ~ stages either prevented ~or coerced.,.. into clii 1 dbi rth. . Women !~violence against women were active in the peace similar pattern can be seen I movement and the Greenham camp in plantations in Sumatra. and sexuality. However, the movement broadened. A partic- has become famous around the WOfotEN Is FI GHTBACK ularly important signpost was 1 world. In many cases, women's the strike of women sewing groups have not confined them- Women hav~ fought back long and hard against all these forms machinists at Fords in Dagenham selves to domestic issues but f of oppression. The women in who came out for equal pay. 1inked up with women around ' the Caribbean and Sumatra, for The First National Liberation the world, active in the anti example, went on a birth strike. Conference in 1970 took Oxford imperialist struggle. Women This tactic was also used by by storm and demanded a total have organised pickets in women in South West Africa in transformation of society whilst support of women Republican rebelling against German at the same time, challenging prisoners, both in Armagh and invaders. The Herero women the orthodoxy and sexism of in this country as in Durham. reduced their population from the left-wing groups. A year STRUGGLES IN THE THIRD WORLD 80,000 to 19,962 between 1892- later, women marched for four I 1909. basic demands: equal pay, equal In the 20th century, the : struggle against imperialist Population control is still education and job opportunities, free contraception and abortion powers has taken the form of . a favourite strategy of oppress national liberation struggles ! ion in the world today with on demand and free 24 hour nurseries. in many countries. Revolutions , millions of dollars of "devel such as the Chi ne se revo 1uti on i opment -aid" imposing it on Third The question of housework was cou 1d not have succeeded without ' countries. Recent campaigns raised, particularly by those the full participation of women. against forced sterilisations who 1ater became known as the In other countries, we can see : and the contraceptive Depo _"Wages For Housework" group, today a total transformation ! provera, which the women's who challenged the theory that movement has taken up on an in the position of women through I housework is non-productive national liberation struggles international scale, are modern 1abour and sparked off an on such as tha~ in Eritrea . or examples of resistance to this going debate. Tigray. i imperialist strategy. Later, in 1g71, the book In other parts of the world, li Women in Africa have also fought "The Dialectics of Sex" by sma 11 groups of women were , back in more vi o 1ent ways. Shulamith Firestone was publ meeting and developing their ! In Eastern Nigeria, in 1926 ished in the UK and the "radical own feminist perspectives. ·· 10,000 women marched and 1ooted feminist" current was born. By the Mid-Decade International in protest at taxation and ill Shulamith Firestone maintained Women's Conference in Copenhagen treatment by the colonial that the primary cause of con in ]g8o, there was a growing power. fl i et between man and woman militancy and network amongst The 19th century women's was in the relations of Third World women and better reproduction, and that· woman's links with other women around movement in Europe and the USA the world. That conference was sparked off by the contra biological make-up had made diction between the universal it possible for men to wield showed how the situation for principles of the bourgeois power over women even before women around the wor 1d was revolution: freedom, equality the development of class · deteriorating. It also marked and fraternity and the system society. Women's main enemy "' an escalation in feminist groups atic exclusion of women from is, in this analysis, men and world-wide fighting back against these basic rights. the main aim for women's such attacks on them such as 1i be ration has to be to seize dowry~killing and rape in India; \ In Britain, the second half control over reproduction. sex-tourism in Thailand; clitor- 1 of the 19th century and early idectomy iilJ Afri f • . and various \ Rart of the 20th, saw women In response to the challenge forms of machh • in Latin active in many different fields. of radical feminism, there America. developed "socialist feminism" The hi story of the women's The 1980's have seen the women's movement of this time, which which started from a basic involved women of different Marxist view that men oppress movement in the West fragmented j women by virtue of their social while in many Third World class backgrounds fighting for and economic relations with countries, it is a growing their freedom in many different them. Socialist feminism today movement. However, ther~ is areas of their lives, has only encompasses a wide range of a growing realisation of ~ the recently been researched and views on the exact relationship inter-relationships between written up. Later articles between se~ and cl ass and has the exploitation of· women in in this series wi 11 cover this made progress particularly when different parts of the imperial period in more detail. At the it has drawn on the experience ist system, of the international same time, a working class of feminists in Third World division of labour and women's women's movement de:ve 1oped, and socialist countries. · need to fight for reproductive in other countries, notably rights world-wide. · in Germany, on the Marxist While there were distinct trends GLOBAL SISTERHOOD theory that only women's full and theories within the women's economic participation in social movement and debates between Women's oppression is a system production would lead to and within them (which we should atic feature of the world pol- emancipation. !. come back - to in more detail itical e_c_~~omy ___ and ideology. ; later), there was often unity Feminism and the different forms WOMEN'S LIBERATION I in action round numerous issues. IN THE SIXTIES ' .of women's fightback is found A fifth demand for liberation everywhere, too. we-stern The "new" women's movement in I for lesbian women was also added . feminism is derived from our 'the West developed in close to the earlier four. In the ·own unique historical experience relation to the other big 60's and 70's, big campaigns ·'arid cannot therefore be applied movements: the movement against were organised round repro ,, universally. Thus the analysis the war in Vietnam, the struggle ductive rights~ rape and porno l and,. _ str~tegy developed _by- the , for civil rights, particularly· graphy, violence against _women movement here is not · tCl" b·e in the USA, l~~_ding _ to the B!_ack__ in t.he __ ~ome; equal pay and - -~n 'i gra~ed ~.1_ __ 1!11J~t -~ be ___p l_a_ced firmly in a comparative and 1ne 1aoour ot women is devalued both at home ana 1n ~ne workplace. historical perspective.. There In different countries and societies around the world, women ha ¥ are inequalities and conflictin~ in conmon that their oppression and exploitation is related t interests between women, based their child-bearing role. In most societies, women have the ~~~ai on class and nation and it is. responsibility for bringing up children (at least very younc vital that we, as western women, children) and providing food etc. However, in most societies i understand that racism and the world today, women's labour, which plays an essential rol imperi a 1ism may prevent us from in reproducing and maintaining the workforce, and in socia understanding Third World production as well, is not rewarded in econ011ic, political 01 women's situations. It is not social terms (money, power or status). likely that a single women's movement can address all the On. this dual exploitation of women's labour, the whole comple > culturally specific forms of political, ideological and social structure of oppression is built. oppression. But any such move- , Although this article will concentrate on women's work outsid ment must be aware and non the home, we will constantly find that this aspect of thei antagonistic to others. oppression is closely bound up with others, in particular thei wor'K inside the home, and wider aspects such as violence agains SEX AND CLASS women, the education of women etc. It is not enough to say that all women are oppressed by all WOMEN WORLD-WIDE I men. The feminist movement A single article can only touch cannot ignore class, or the on this huge subject. (Whoever exploitative international sat down and wrote one art i c 1e 1aboured herse 1f. The ri s: division of labour and on man's work?) This article 1 of trade started a more camp 1e imperialism. will concentrate on the diff a~d specialised society anc On the other hand, most '1 eft' erences between women and men's r1 cher yeomen's wives wi thdre• groups have a record of sub work ·, and the historical and from agricultural labour. I ordinating the question of women ' material basis for this. I the towns, workshops becam " to nothingness. The question Women of all classes and nations larger with the main divisi c of women is seen as subordinate are oppressed as women and their being between masters an• to the class question, or simply I labour devalued, . but working workers, and a lessening ro le as an ideological question to class women also suffer from for masters' wives and widows . be overcome in time. - class oppr~sion ~n~Third World The trades -whictt-- women kep t women from national oppression. control of longest were those The question that is unresolved This produces a complex relation relating to women's househol a is the relationship of tasks: drink and clothing patriarchy and imperialism • . between women world-wide. Imperial ism has exploited women pr?du~tion such as brewing or Put crudely, we have to under sp1 nn1 ng. stand the aspects of women's differently, at difference times oppression that are common to and in different places, in Gradually, women were forced women of different cl asses and order to maximise profits and ' out of the more profi tab 1e nations and how the almost uni this has produced both a sexual trades, and women's work became versal domination of women by division of labour and an inter- i associated with low pay. There men has developed and can be national division of labour. were wide variations from place overcome (patriarchy) and how In concentrating '!lainly on this to place and from trade ·to this interrelates with the 'country, we do not mean that trade. In Wales and Scotland structure of class and national international aspects are not feudalism lasted much longer: exploitation that makes up important: both women inter Young printe.rs, for example, imperialism. nationally, and national ~ere protest1ng against women minority women in this country 1n the unskilled printing This is the question that we ,are of extreme importance. processes in the 1630's and will have to return to, again But lack of space and resources had virtually excluded them and again, in the series of must make us concentrate here by the mid-17th century. In articles. Until we are clear I on the hi story of women' s work on the basis of women's. the woollen trade, women retain in this country, whilst learning· ed quite a strong position • oppression, we will not be able from, and supporting, women's a1 though by the 17th century, I to destroy it and build a future struggles elsewhere. they were being restricted to ' society where women are free. WOMEN IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL carding' and spinning at home, An organisation that really BRITAIN while men did the sorting and shows itself able to understand Historically, there has always dyeing. In 1639, Mary Arnold and va 1ue the 1abour of women went to jai 1 because she con been a sexual division of tinued to brew, contrary to in an imperialist society; to ' labour. Under capitalism and be able to fight the violence I imperi a 1ism, there have been an order of the Brewers of against women, to uphold the Westminster. Women he a 1ers ~_amp 1ex and contrai 1 and she· al sn bear children, so that he could
~-- ______. put ail his energies into his DOUBLE OPPRESSION I makers in Nottingham;- girls capitalist and colonial in a tin box ..1 manufactury in ventures. Thus women continued to 1 abour London (who pelted men who con for capitalism in two ways. ' tinued to work with red-ochre By the early 19th century, the Although capitalism broke the and flour), and jute workers middle class had a distinct complete control of the working in Dundee. identity and there was a close class man over his woman and connection, in England, between children, in that they ceased Women workers were helped by business and 1anded property to be directly a means of 'some male trade unionists, which changed the feudal production for him, the women's radicals and socialists, . anc relations in the countryside 1 low wage was still complement in 1891, a big demonstration and produced ri eh farmers with ary to the commodity system. of laundresses in ~yde Park "non-working" wives and farm Women could not enter commodity was supported by the railway labourers. production on the same terms workers amongst others. There as men. Like the man, they is, however, very little writter Whilst the rich women were being sold their labour power now about the ideas and as pi rations excluded from production, the as a commodity. But they still __~ of workfng- women- at thi-st'i';. lives of poor women were cease less labour. Women agricultural worked to maintain the labour In the early l90~'s, women tradE force at home. unionists, especially in the workers had the bearing and textile unions, became actively succour of 1 arge families, work In the early years of the i nvo 1 ved in the 1ong and bitter in the fields, especially at industrial revolution, the work struggle for the vote. harvest, and also would work of women in reproducing the as domestics in the big houses. men and children • s capacity THE GIRLS BACK HOME Poor women played an active, to 1 abour was drastically 1 The period of the two worl d and if necessary violent 'and reduced. With protective legis wars, of course, saw dramatic organised, part in the struggles lation and fewer hours in the but temporary changes in women 's for a cheap loaf of bread. factory, women workers spent I work and unions' attitudes. WOMEN IN THE more time doing housework in Sudden 1y, women were encouragea INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION the family. The need for · to be engineers, drivers, ana women's labour in the family, do heavy work of all kinds. The industrial revolution grad in reproducing and maintaining ' r~i 11 ions of women today can ually separated women's work 1abour power thus ex ere i sed describe their experiences of in the family for work for a certain restraint on the this period. Basically, unions wages. Women and children direct exploitation of women's made agreements that women would forced off the 1 and by capi t 1abour power in industry. But leave their jobs at the end alist farming methods, as well women's social ·usefulness was of the war, and equivocated as Irish immigrants starved never recognised or recompensed. about equaT pay because they out by English colonialism, did not want to admit that women co~peted for jobs, thus Capitalism and imperialism have , used women's labour in differ- I were as capable of the work strengthening the hands of the ent ways at different times. as men. industrialists. But this basic contradiction Towards the end of the Seccnd Marx saw women being drawn into l remains unchanged and is World War, the beginnings of factory production in this era reflected today in women's place the welfare state were set up. as the beginning of their emanc in the wage labour market, their The Beveridge Report which form ipation. . Indeed, it was a very role in trade unions and atti ed the basis for many of the comp 1ex process. Despite the · tudes to women within the plans, stated: wrn the next brutality of conditions in early unions. thirty years, housewives as factories, the complete control WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 1 mothers, have vi ta1 work to of male overseers, the double do in ensuring the adequate burden of caring for children, The growth of workers' organ- ! continuance of the British race as well as twelve-hour factory isations in the early 19th and of British ideals in the shifts; despite all this, women century, which culminated in! world." for the first time were earning the legalising of trade unions in 1824 and 1at er the Chartist Consequently, women were sent money and gaining some glimpses back to their homes and the of economic independence. movement in the 1840's, included some women. For example, a 1ab our shortage so 1 ved by FAMILY WAGE spinners' strike in 1818 saw importing workers, firstly from men and women drawing equa 1 Europe, as in the case of Many working class men resisted strike pay. In 1832, there Italian workers recruited to the entry of women into was .-strike T 1500 women card work in the cotton mills, and setters. Bu. most of the early later from the Third World. factories, both because they unions of strength were in male- Immigration to Britain in the wished to remain master in their dominated industry. The own home, and because of comp post-war years was carefully Chartist movement i ne 1uded some planned. · Initially, Caribbean etition for jobs. In reality, women united on a class basis! then as now, families depended Immigration to Britain in the but it did not take up women's post-war years was carefully on wives' earnings. But the· problems as such and campaigned idea of a man's right to a planned. Caribbean people, for a family wage and a place many of them women, came in family wage gained credence. for women in the home. Protective legislation for women search- .of..,.. .iP,bs and money that workers was a two edgemarriage and 1 and woman as dependent housewife patriarchal family. Unlike i and mother, and the nucl ear- ! the peasants, the propertyl ess ~ family a's "·progressive". ! proletariat had no material interest in the production of , The material basis for this / ·children. Many were unmarried ' contradiction lies in the ad- ! or deserted and 1 i ved a mobile -~ vantage which working cl a~s I existence with their children. . men gain from women's role 1n • the family: both his abil ity: A combination of legislation, to dominate paid work, his con- J' police measures and church tro l over all money income to ideology forced this class. to the family and the benefit of ! wards the bourgeois family . unpaid labour for him at home. ! WOMEN AND THE FAMILY Legislation was passed criminal Coming home to food bought and i I ising infanticide, sexual inter cooked, clothes washed, children In trying to und erstand the I course outside marriage and ! cared for, loo paper on the relationship between the family abortion. What the state called \ roll etc. etc. is, let's face and women ' s oporession, we need a crime, the church called a it, one he-ll of an advantage. to study the family in a hist sin. Thus women were forced · orical and nor-Eurocentric way. into the home to take on the \ Thus women's role withi~ the This is very diffi cult. Our role of housewife; labour costs r modern Western family · means 1 experience of the nuclear family ! were reduced for the bourgeoisie to the capitalist that all the . i n imperialist Britain is part- ! and a new consumer market labour required to serve and j i cular in time and place and ! eventua lly created. reproduce his work force is p~o- should not be generalised. j vi ded free, and to the work 1ng THE LABOUR MOVEMENT AND On the other hand, it is sign man, the everyday burden of 1 ificant to us because it is , THE FAMILY WAGE exi ste_nce is invisibly ! the concrete reality of the j This process, whereby women I 1i ghtened. position that we are i n. I 's place was to be in the h?lllE DOMESTIC LABOUR BOURGEOIS FAMILY was pushed forward by the bour- I geoisie and the state. The way in _wh i eh women's dom estic labour fits into the wage Our present concept of the -~ However, · the working class move- family - the monogamous nuclear labour system must be dealt ment in the 19th and 20th I with at · length another time . family - is a bourgeois one. century also made its ~ Even the concept of 'family' As domestic labour produces contribution. The organised use values, not commodities, became popular only towards ! working class {mainly made up the end of the eighteenth . it is not directly paid for of skilled men) used the argu- 1 by the capita 1 i st. But it does j century in Europe, and to begin • ment that a man's wage should with, was. only promoted among affect the profit made by them. 1 be sufficient to maintain a The contribution whi eh domestic the propertied classes. It family so that his wife could was only these classes who were 1 labour makes to- surplus value stay at home and look after 1 {profit) is one of keeping down supposed to have a family : that j the household. The principle is, a family as a combination "necessary labour" to a 1eve l of equal pay for women was con that is 1ower than the- actua 1 of co-res i de nee and b1 ood sistently rejected by most , relationship based on the subsistence level of the working I un i ons until quite late in the 1 class. patriarchal principle, with 20th century, for this reason. I the man as the 'head' of the · For example, it could be ar~ued I household and 'breadwinner' ! The question of women's work that it is cheaper for cap1tal ; for wife and children. I in factories was discussed at to pay a ma 1 e worker a wage i the 1866 Congress of the First sufficient to, .at least Until the middle of the· 19th! j International in Geneva where partially, ~~_i_~ _ain his wife century, there were a number Karl Marx stated that the tend of marriage restrictions for ency of modern industry to draw . peop 1e · without property. women into production had to .. Agri cu l tura 1 labourers, workers be seen as a progressivel etc. were expected to work tendency. The French section ceaselessly, . both men and and a 1 so some of the Germans, women. Indeed, many of these I however, _were strongly opposed women worked as domestic i to women's work outside the servants and were allowed no house. The German memorandum 'j family life of their own. contained such sentiments as: In the second half of the 19th "To wives and mothers belongs i century, these rest ri et ions the work in the family and the were abolished in most .household. While the man is European countries and the the representative of the ser family was promoted and put ious public and family duties,_ under the protection of the l the wife and mother should state. represent the comfort and the . The reasons why the bourgeoi sie poetry of domestic life, she encouraged the establishment should bring · grace and beauty of the modern family within to social manners and raise Europe are many and complex. human enjoyment - to a nobler At the same time, they were · and higher plane." (Thonnessen, systematically destroying kin~ 1969, trans. Maria Miers). ships and societies in the Other revolutionaries such as colonies: the other side of Bebel -and Clara Zetkin had I the same coin. ., similar views on women as prim- I PUSHED INTO THE FAMILY HOME arily wives and mothers and upheld the . creation of the Women and children constituted ·bourgeois nu~lear fa~ily within i a large part of · the early ' the proletar_1at. Th1s has led , industrial pro'tetari at. But ;to a .basic contradictioll foU' their extreme exploitation socialists, that on the one quickly led to- such high infant hand, the entry of women · into mor tal ity and disease· that the social · production is seen as - ~;----- . ,. -~ . -· -~-- -,..----- ... - --- . so th~t she prepares his mea 1s , children are completely f the Labour Party and-- Equa 1 for h1m, rather than pay him 1 dependent on hi m for money •j Opport~nities Commission. But a wage on which he could afford 1 Physically, there is little nursen es were being closed to eat regularly at restaurants. / legal protction from assault. down. Under pressure from pub- If housework is socialised 1 Rape by a husband is still not 1i c services cuts si nee then, and those workers paid a prope; illegal. Morally, women are things have worsened and such wage, the value of labour power responsible for family harmony provision is a pipe dream to (~nd therefore w9ges) would and burden the gui 1 t if it most women. Experience has r1 se dramatically,' · However fails. · Old people and children shown us that this demand is as we saw in World War 2 if are exc,luded from useful social not realisable in the capital i st capita 1 is desperate ' work and varied communal living. 1 en~ugh system. But it is · one which 1 for women .to enter the 1 abour I The small nuclear family makes is top priority under s~cialism. market, then hou·sework wi 11 roles and sexist stereotypes to a certain extent b~ very difficult to change: it socialised. ' provides an intense social VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN situation, isolation from As stated earlier; the state Underlying much of the inequal friends and alternative models, i ity and exploitation which women promotion of the bourgeois isolation especially of women 1 experience within the family, 1y tn Europe was bound up f~mi ·fr:-om other women. _and an ideal . is violence against women. w1th the destruction of kinship opportunity for media influence. · In . contrast to the defeat on systems in the colonies. With 1 ch1 l de are, however, women have out the vicious exploitation The present at tack and rundown of _ the Third World, the capit of the welfare state is happen organised, exposed and made allst states would not have· ing alongside a voluble Tory some -practical advances in their struggle against violence. been ab 1e to promote the idea 1 promotion of the family. Like ! of white women being wives and Mr Jenkin ( 1980): In 1972, Erin Pizzey set up , mothers. This is bound together "If the good Lord had intended the first refuge for battered I not only in purely economic us all having equal rights to women in Chi swi ck and si nee terms but also openly in eugenic go out to work and to behave then, the Women's Aid movement , terms - that white women should equally, you know, he really , has grown, to a total of 99 ; breed pure and healthy white wouldn't have created man and ' groups and 200 refuges in 1980 ·j ch1ldren to continue the woman." colonial system. The extent and brutality of But the Labour Party do no domestic violence that was un- i better, like Prime Minister , . covered has been mirrored in , FAMILIES WORLD-WIDE Ca 11 aghan, ( 1978): ~ m·any other countrfes once women : got together to ta 1 k about it. j In order to have a more a 11· "We have to pay much more In India, ·tor example, dowry round view of the family, we attention than . we have done killings had been covered up l need to do more investigation in the past as to how industry for decades. Women's Aid offers I into family structures in non- organises women's role at work, battered women a place where 1 European countries. · National so that her influence at the they can ta 1k and discover they . minority women in this centre of the family is are not alone, and also some 'I country bring with them not weakened." experiences of quite different degree of safety amongst other family life from, for example, Despite this, there is growing women. , the Caribbean, from India and evi de nee that the family is In 1976, the Domestic Violence from Pakistan . Many of these . breaking up, especially under Act was passed which simplified families will have suffered the strains put on it by the and strengthened court orders from interference from colonial economic recession. Over one to stop violent hu5band . rule and have also been dis- in four marriages now ends in . a This was a step forward although. rupted by emigration to an alien divorce. And, in Haringey, 1 the police remain very unwil l ing and racist culture. for example, half the households I are now single parent families to act in "domestic disputes" THE NUCLEAR FAMILY headed by women. , . J and the immense practical diff culties of housing, income, The evolution of today's small I CHILDCARE ...,. ' etc. for women on the run with nuclear family from the more ' children, remain. extended fami 1y continued until / Many of the basic demands taker. we 11 after the industria 1 up by the women ' s movement of During ' the 1980's, there has revolution and the state pro- the 19!0's,. r~late to ~e' ir been an upsurge in violence motion of the family has con- oppress1on w1th1n the family: against women and pornographic tinued in varying intensity especially the demand for free violence in the video industry up to today's strident calls 24-hour _nur~eries. For many , and_ rapE!, __ both i ns_i ~~ ~~t- of Mrs Thatcher. women, 1t 1s the first baby ! and thereafter, which suddenly ' side of marriage~ is st i l ~ dealt In the more extended form of , loads onto them their oppression with as minor offences. .. family, women toiled physically ' as women. They are immediately THE FAMILY IN REVOLUTWtf .. • with no mechanisation. Des- unable to compete in the labour . ' . criptions of the never-ending • market; .unable to have any time In revolutionary situations, drudgery of their li.ves also 1 to themselves; tied to a demand- 1 traditiona 1 patriarchal .-family illustrate, however, the support 1 ing and exhausting routine round systems need to be overthrown women gave each other in child- I the clock; and often because so that women can take a full rearing and coping with extreme: ' thet ar_e now 'at home'· all day part in the revolution. · poverty. the1r husband expects his meals The tremendous changes that The transition to the small 1 all cooked, his s'hirts ironed have taken place for women in nuclear family began with the his shopping done, etc. etc. ' liberated areas in Eritrea, industrial revolution and the · Society at one and the same for example, . are described in I move from 1 and to towns, the time puts . women on a pedestal 'War On Want" s public at i on mobility of labour, poor prov- of ult~·mate achievement and 'Eritrean Journey'. ision of housing, and the ' offers,.;;h~.m . no help whatsoever. In health programmes and individualism! competitit~ven~ss j In th~ .. .l9}0's, many women's. education, women's needs have and consumensm of cap1tallst groups Gampaigned for nurserie.s been given more than equal society. r or set. . ;them up them se 1ves · . ~ attention to those of men. Within this family, women are I But they ··,)'lere too expensive There have been · ~ special virtually owned by their _t~ run: __E.!::ivat~ly and _:_m_Ploy~-~s campaigns against traditional husbands. On marriage, many were not interested. By the I customs . which particularly of their legal rights disappear; : end of the decade, the import- ! ,_ ,ffe 1 are ·even nomad women fighters · sharing the frontl ine of battle ~ith men. Women are now active THIRD WORLD WOMEN: in village assemblies. (In the past, if women had dared ~ to stand up and speak, they were publicly humiliated and SWEATSHOPS IN beaten by their husbands.) Land distribution has given,. many women land for· the first time. . Within a socialist system' which follows such a struggle, there THE SUN will be, for a long time, conflicts between old family structures and the new social by international orsanisations which will grow ea pi ta 1 in their search for to replace them. In China, impact of capitalism and higher profits and many labour- ! for example, a leap was made ialism on women in Third intensive industries were re- ; from a feudal society to a ' ld countries was necessarily located in the Free Trade Zones. I socialist one only one y different and very varied. For example, between 1971 and ' generation in many cases and It depended on the social organ 1983, 1.5 mi llion workers, many contradictions still remain isation which had developed mostly women, lost jobs in the between women's traditional that society before clothing and textile industries family roles and those required • erialism, on the nationality in Europe and the USA, and over and demanded- by today's women. stage of the colonial power 2- million new jobs were created This is complicated by other on many other factors. in the Third World. changes, for example, the It is also a continually chang .Population policy of one-child ing pattern depending on maxim The computer "revolution" was families. Despite these diff ising profits for imperialism, made possible by the super culties, most women in new China at any one time. This article exploitation of Asian women lead a totally different and i n only touch on one or two in Free Tr.ade Zones, who make examples. But knowledge and up 80% of the workforce. The 1i berated life compar.ed to only I factory conditions these women 50 years ago . It is certain understanding in this area is vi ta 1 to our better under work in are appalling and also that women will have to continue continue the ideology that women and refine their struggle for standing of women's oppression d the struggle against it. are women and housewives before a fair and equal family workers, relationship. A successful adly speaking, the eo l oni a 1 Besides this exploitati.on of outcome will, in many respects i od involved the extraction women by 1ow wage 1abour, ·there liberate men as well as women. ' materia 1s from the has a 1so been a growth of the NO HAVEN IN THE FAMILY · manufacture "back sex and sex-tourism industries. and then forcing these Sex tours provide the second The. specific form taken by the s onto the markets in or third most important source fam1ly at any time or place colonies. This involved of foreign exchange in Thailand is linked to the mode of I n as slaves; women working and the Philippines. Women production. It is a creation 1 rectly on plantations; women continue to do the majority of that social system and will f being left behind with family of agricultural work: a recent reflect its culture. In most I and poor subsistence land while study in Southern India found of the world today, and certain were forced to work the that women were doing a 11 the ly in Britain, the family is rich cash crops; and wo11\j11 housework and 80% of the agri essentially oppressive to women. losing both land rights and cultural work, and that modern Although women seek shelter their own handicraft industries isation and 'aid' progr and warmth within the - family was the case with the Indian made this worse. from the uncaring, racist and i le industry, destroyed sexist society outside, the ng l ish factory~ made cloth. bourgeois nuclear family cannot were raped, used as provide_ this. The bourgeois stitutes and the whole social RESOURCES family 1s part of the capitalist d family structure destroyed. system and is built on The following books have been exploitation, isolation hus at the same time as cap used to compile much of the suppression and violence toward~ tal i sts were withdrawing their information in this article: women. women from the labour force instituting the family at Hidden From History, Sheila , they were destroying it Rowbotha11. in the Third World. (This is Waged Work, A Reader, edited something · we will explore in by Feminist Review. ~ ~ ter detail in future articles.) Patriarchy and Accu.ulation on a World Scale. Maria Mies. '·.SWEATSHOPS IN THE Slllt Con10n Fate, · Connon Bond, the 1970's, Third World women Swasti Mitter. to a certain extent re- lt)IIJJ)lll~l'iiiCJIOII~IIf,laiiKCUt~X~ll lt>DI SOCIAL PRODUCTION & THE EXCLUSION OF WOMEN GLIMPSES INTO HERSTORY societies such as the i~aya, cal violence against women in A Contribution the Aztec and the Inca. Women the home has played a 1arge here did have soffie ~olitical part in the actior.. Thinking about the very useful and social rights but they were But now the superior physical articles on Herstory in March oppressed as sexual objects strength of men is not a nece and April 'Class Struggles', and never, as far as I colJld ssity in our daily lives, with there are one or two points tell, were equal with men. machines, science and technology worth raising even thoush this OPPRESSION BEFORE COLONIALISM taking the place of strength ! contribution is not we 11 worked in nearly all fields of work. 1 out. As for the Aboriginal people Women are- not handicapped from Starting from the premise that in Australia, w~om I read about that point of view any more, class society excluded women in Robert Hughes' excellent and can· be equally capable in fr~~ sorial crc du ~tinn. the book 'The Fatal Shore', they an all-round way. question in my rr.i nd is: 'llho~· lived, at the time of the The only exception is still d·;c: cn ly men become. tne social imperialist invasion 200 years in the home, where violent men producers, and not women and ago, in a state of near prim can still overcome women men? itive commur.ism . With no private property, land rights physically, again generally There seem to l;e two main and no surp 1us beyond their speaking. reasons. One: women had, and needs, the women were cruelly COPING IN A MAN'S WORLD i still have, the essential oppressed by their ffier.fo 1k just responsibility for child-bearins the same. So now women have to undo a 11 I and rearing. And two: the the discrimination and violence , greater physica 1 strength of Their marriage was usually perpetrated against them over 1 men which \lljas essential for arranged at birth and they then the centuries and win their the heavy 1abouri ng work nece became the property of their e-qual partnership with men in I ssary for the development of husbands. They had absolutely the world. Most impc-rtantly, ~ettled agriculture. no rights within the clan and they have to realise deeply were physically assaulted by their equal ability and stand However, with the development their menfolk if they tried up to this task ideologically of classes, ruling class women to stand up for themselves in as well as practically. · ceased to be oppressed as a any way. class but still became oppressed I think we underestimate the as women. Why? In those far The ideology of men's superior enormous burden of generation off days, were men already aware ity over women gained credence after generation of women being that they were onto a good thing and acceptability over .the made to feel inferior to men by being the only earners and generations because nearly and hew they can overcome this women the home-makers and a always the men \lljere physically inbuilt subjugatior. stab 1e e 1ement in the society? the strongest. Strongest for _But they still have the double Or were - women "'hO could afford hard physical labour, for going task of fightins for equality the so-~a 11 ed \ )(ury of being out to war anC: always with the and bet ng the necessary bearers the home-makers only toe pleased dominance of physical force of chi 1dren, and at present to be free of the enormous toil over women. She, on the other the rearers, too. How to ccpe of working on the land? hand, was always responsible for the essent i a 1 chi 1d-beari ng with that dilemma in this man's Even in Diop's analysis (see and rearing \lljhich took place world, f s a prob 1em that even March 'Class Struggle') although during the most productive years socialist countries _ such.::.::as matriarchy still held sway in of her life. China, are finding very hard many African countries as far to solve. · as · inheritance was concerned, women generally speaking, in PHYSICAL VIOLENCE 111111111111111111111111 fact passed on hereditary rights E)(ceptional women have historic- to sons · or brothers not to ally stood out against this 'Class Struggle' ··would welcome daughters: that is, hereditary oppression. But for the mass readers~ ·: responses and con- rights were transmitted 'through of. women, the laws made over tributions to this series and the women~ ""llot to her. Also, the ages dicriminating against other itees in the paper. from my, very limited reading them have always pushed women's Please sent thet11 to: of early societies, Diop's efforts at freedom back into Class Struggle, theories for Africa do not hold the home and at the service c/o 203 Seven. Sisters Road, . r' up for some early South American of ~en. And, of course, physi- London N4 3NG • I tt>Ditii+~II~I~II«naan~I'''JaiDIIRD<~llti~X~'... - r - .. .,. .. ~~ ~t' There is evidence that the When some 80,000 women and men Of all the aspects of being ( ·ancient civilisations of Africa marched in October 1979, it a w0111an i n sodety, sex and : and Asia had much knowledge was the largest trade union reproduction must be the most about conception and childbirth, demonstration for many years ignored by •politics", whilst for a cause which lay beyond being at the core of wo.anhood. such as herbal remedies, an 1 1 understanding of -body rhythms 1 t he traditional scope of coll The unique contribution of women i ective bargaining and was al so to the wor 1d economy is the , and diet, which enabled them 1 to contra 1 to an extent their the biggest ever pro-abort io ~ reproduction of the people productive forces. We certain- I march. For the feminists whc themselves, although the ly know that many societies I had done the years of work , possibility of giving birth under threat can increase or : however, it was a bitter pi ll does not alone define womanhood. decrease their population and i - the TUC insisted on headi ne; WOMEN'S WORK women have wi e 1ded this as a · the march with Len Murray and WITH BREAST AND WOMB power in fighting colonial ' General Council members - almost all men. The who 1e process of pregnancy, battles. chi 1dbi rth, child-rearing Much of this knowledge was · a process that determines twenty systemati ea lly destroyed or years of their · life for many hidden from women in the 1ast , women - is placed in a separate ' few centuri_es _ in cap~ta~ist \ category of "nature" or j and imper1al1st soc1et1es. Reproductive "biology". It is not viewed as productive work, not included I·1 Independe~t free-thi nkfng women \ in political economy and not were seen as a threat to the mentioned in political ns1ng bourgeohie in Europe Rights and, more recently, fat profits 1 manifestos. 1 have been made by making know- :\ Effective though the National ledge into coarnodities, for r Abortion Campa ign (NAC) had ex amp 1e through drugs, contra been in defending the 1967 Act , ception or food . I it had completely missed out All this has weakened women r on --the wider implications of and marginalised their labour. 'j "a right to choose". Its whi t e, Their bodies have been turned· mi ddle-class background had into coarnodities. Women have t· bl inkered it from seeing the lost sight of their identity: importance, for black and work the fact that female product ing class women, of the issues ivity is a pre-condition for of forced steri 1i sati on, the male productivity. It is no use of injectable long-acting accident that the history of contraceptives such as Depo early societies is hidden : provera, and the whole 'other societies where women were the side' to reproductive rights. producers of children, the gatherers of food and the early i In 1983, NAC spl it into two agriculturalists, whilst men l separate campaign groups: one, went hunting for the luxury ' continuing on the single issue of meat and s 1aves. That is of abortion rights and the the history of women using their other, a reprod uctive rights bodies as means of production group. in a different way to men, but a way which must be publiclyi The reproducti ve· r ights group reinstated as productive labour. 1 has publ i cised t he history of In rejecting this view that the birth control movement and such labour is purely a function its involvement wi th · eugeni cs of "nature", we need to recogn and the ideology of the need nise that men and women have DEBATE IN THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT for birth cont ra1 in order to different bodies which interact Although much of this has been carry on and strengthen t he with nature in different ways. ignored by political movements, white race. This racist bas is They use their bodies to inter it has been at the very centre has been carried on to the act with nature and to change of much of the women's movement present with working class and it (sometimes called the approp both here and world-wide. The black women bei ng forced i nto riation of nature). It is a resurgence of feminism in the sterilisation and experimented conscious human and social 1960s and 1970s, in this country on, with new and long-acting activity. and America, was fired by , contraceptives. Marx defined work in its broad demands for abortion on demand, I Campaigns such as those arou nd est sense as acting on the control over their bodies and j' Depo-provera have united women external world and changing sexual freedom, among other from many third world countries. it. In this way, the labourers' . ~ma~s. I · Organisations such as Gabriel a hands are his "means of FREE CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION in the Phi 1i ppi nes have p1 ay ed production". · But we do not ON DEMAND I a leading role. Population hear of women's breasts, or control and "aid" to third world womb, ·- being her means of 'Free contraception and abortion countries from the West are production. Indeed, the actual on demand' was one of the of enormous repressive signif process of childbirth is called original demands of the women's icance to third world women. 1abour, but not rea 11 y thought movement in the · west in the Any' campaigns for reproductive of as •work", although any 1970s. At an ear 1y stage, the rights in this country mu st mother can testify to the fact Women's Abortion and Contra clearly · acknowledge this, and that it is! ception Campaign included 'an further links between women ------WOMEN'S TRADITIONS end to forced steri 1i sati on' world-wide on thi s issue. in its campaign. Through~ut hi story- as we kno~ In 1975, however, the National it, women have acquired know Abortion Campaign was launched ledge which helps them to choose 1 REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY and control their reproductive ' with the sole purpose of -activity. Breeding is not just defending the 1967 Abortion The 1980s have also seen the . a · natural activity but is a Act. Thi~ campaign was success . rapid growth of "reproductive ..form of human work which repro- ful in defeating a series of · t echnology" . Science, unfort Private Members' Bills and al so unate 1y in the hands .of . duces the human · race in a in . spurring the trade unions way. imperi a 1ism and patri arc~y , socia~ise~ <~ -"'·" ,..______and TUC int~ taking action~ is completely· - ·.chang1ng -- - .---_· ~:-;- ·:~ l reproduction: Like otner 1 scient i fie and technol ogica 1 i knowledge, it is not right or · Sex, Race wrong in i tse 1f, but dependent on to whose advantage it is and Class used. The new reproductive techno 1ogy Also complicating the issue 1 has the potentia 1 to bring of sexual violence against immense pleasure to infertile women, is the racist ideology , coup 1es, and to prevent the that it is black men who are : birth of babies with severe violent to white women. This 1 congenital handicaps and lie has been used historically ' diseases such as muscular and in the present, to attack I dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. black men, often through However, the potential is also lynching. there, and at · present being used, to determine the sex of Historically, there are many / the embryo and hence to bring examples of how white women's ! about the abortion of female vulnerability to physical / babies. In India alone, it violence from men has been used is estimated that between 1978 to bring in oppressive! and 1983, around 78,000 female legislation. For instance, i foetuses were aborted after in 1926 a White Woman' si a sex determination test. Protection Ordinance was passed1 The benefits of the new tech in Papua · (New Guinea), then nology can be closely controlled under British rule, which intro by the state and offered to duced the death ~enalty for the "perfect" coup 1e in order the crime of rape of any to have the "perfect" baby. European female. \ In these hands, in many ways In a similar way, class has \ it increases the powerlessness interacted with- sexual ' - of women and brings alienation exploitation, in that working even to conception and child class and peasant women have · birth. been considered "fair game" for seduction or rape by upper SEXUAL VIOLENCE class men. Such men can use Women's sexual needs and their seci a 1 and monetary power · pleasures are not only ignored to force women to comply and and suppressed by the whole suffer no reproach from society 1 afterwards. Similarly many, state and religious machinery, 'l but women world-wide are ex many women suffer sexual harass ploited and violated sexually. i ment at work, from bosses and Within marriage in this, and supervisers: ranging from verbal , most countries, rape is not remarks, through touching and ' an offence. Pornography and mauling, to outright blackmail sexual violence against women or intimidation. are promoted in advertising, films and vi de os, so that Female sexuality does not belong women's bodies become commod to a private sphere which floats ities themselves. free from economic and political affairs. Nor is it simply an The total degradation of third expression of economic relations war 1d women by western men on - it does hold a fundamental sex tours is growing big challenge to patriarchy. business. Sex tours provide the second or third most impor- Feminists have· challenged power- tant source of foreign exchange . ful myths in oor society: such 1 . in Thailand and the Philippines, · as that sex is purely a natural ~here ~.eri cans, Sri t ish and phenomenon and therefore . Austral .ans go. Women are apolitical; that the natural "bought" in advance from expression of sexuality is what ' brochures. Every Sunday, a we know as heterosexua 1 i ty; planeload of men leave and that a woman's sense of Amsterdam for a sex tour in · her own sexuality is natural Bangkok. The women used in ! rather than constructed by · this way get a tiny fraction ! social and economic factors. 1 of the fee and are in great 1 danger from violence and drugs. In 1975, came the women's 1 This is an example of how sexisti movement's sixth demand: 'An 1 and racist oppression often! end to discrimination against double up. . lesbians, and for a woman's ·- j ~ right to determine her own sexuality'. This was the begin- 1 Jlings of a positive commitment --. - .. . ------·- --,I to fema 1e eroticism, as some- I thing powerful and autonomous, whi eh is shared by hetero sexuals, lesbians and bisexuals, and breaks down barriers between . them. Femininity could then be ce 1ebrated rather than shunned. It could be positive and strong as well as sensual, desiring as well as desirable. I It would not necessarily deny l men, and it certainly would , not rely on them. - It would·l be what women wanted to be, ~ not what men de~ r-eed • .-·---- J . l ~ It is highly inappropriate to deEreed•r::-- lhe obvious cha-11 enge write of a "positive c011111i tment to heterosexuality means that to efernale eroticism" when the there should be a clarification articulate sections of the on opposition to the anti-gay women's movement in Britain legislation, are racked by a debate on the It has been a universal featur ~ nature and expression of f ema 1 e of the human species that a eroticism. To many women, I sizeable miriority of people schoo 1 ed in activity against are attracted sexually towards pornography and the debasement 1 their own sex. And for thi s of women, the advocacy of women- ! they have been subject t o orientated eroticism/pornography\ various social sanctions. That and sado-masochist practices, 1 there should be defence of con whi eh reproduce a mirror image 1 senting adults against at-tacks of the power relations condemned \ from the state and popul ar when committed by men on women, ; prej udices should be part of is far from given recognitio~' a political platform. Dear Editor, as an acceptable expressi_ -or remT ni nity. Is it femininity, There is an unfortunate tendency within the gay movement whi eh I've been following with expressed through decorative ~ · interest the ' Glimpses into fashion? Do not female soldiers identifies one's own sexual Herstory' articles and had in- I react as their equally trained! orientation as the over-riding tended .to gjye a more considered ~ale counterparts? ._ Is macho criteria to judge others by . reply to many of the points ~ beh,aviour restricted only to Thus, gay fascist skinheads it gives rise to. For instance, ,. sections of the male population? are accepted as a legitimate the idea of childbirth as part Are there no men who are gentle, part of the movement despite of the Marxist category of considerate and caring? Is .\ their politics, and 1 abour, seems far removed from I it only women who are peace j sel f-i ndul gence regardless of traditional orthodoxy, and I activists? These are some ' the cost to others in emoti anal worthy of investigation . - of the characteristics or. or physical terms is all part I qualities banded about in ' of the scene. Whilst challeng However, it was the article ~- definition of femininity, and . ing that situation by supporting in the June issue, 'Sex and the subjectiveness of what is the more progressive elements, Reproduction' that I felt needed erotic and what is pornography ' the limitations and political some points to be made. It 1 makes for a chasm in argumen~s. inadequacies of the organised was, to my mind, the least gay movement s hou 1d not be satisfying of the series so What - could have been- developed, allowed to obscure defence of far. Especially with a concept and hopefully will be in future an individual's sexuality. like 'femininity', it seemed articles, is that femininity That point is not clearly spelt more phi 1 osophi ea 1 than based "would be what women wanted out but taken as read in the on scientific understanding. to bP. and not what men art i c 1 e_. ______Whi 1st ab so 1ute ly correct to emphasise that aspect of women's oppression that treats women as convnodities, where the BELIEVE ME, KATE, 'M article was lacking was in its treatment of the movement which AS A FEMINiST MYS£LF. I has risen to eh a 11 enge vi o 1ence ONLY TRYING TO against women in its many forms. :c~~~r ~~IoRY AREA~ WHERE l TS yoU VROM I There are divisions, some quite intense, w.ithin the women's PERHf:\PS Pf ______::._~____:__~~------:-c-:~_:_-~~---· _ ·_. --- -~~. t~t how women itrf3JEJU91]t their.pf~Qe • ___.______~- ..-·- - ·...., .------, ------··------·:.;· -·· _.. • . - ~ - :. _ ~:_ ..._ h ~-:;~· -; - - --"'!!'-. .. . etical work, a'nc some individual victories, it has been a diff In the icult task and one where pos itive action is required from the educational establishment. Third World It has gradua 11 y become evident In many Third World countries, to feminists that what girls women are denied any education need is not access to boys' at a 11 except in the upper education, but for education cl asses. Nawa 1 El-Saadawi has to be redefined and trans written passionately cf her formed , and then to be made own struggle for education in avail ab 1 e to both sexes on an Egypt. One of the first tasks equal basis, in such a way as and one of the most popular, to intervene against inequality. of any liberation movement, Some women have demanded the is to combat illiteracy, retention of, or return of, especially among women. single sex scllools in order Vi si tors return i ng from such that girls may be treated more places as Guinea Bissau, equally . Nicaragua, Eritrea and Palestine always describe the enthusiasm for schoo 1 s usually he 1d alongside work or military Racism and action. One of the big changes for women in socialist China has been the opening up of sexism educational opportunities for all women. For black women and girls, in imperialist countries such as ours, the role sexism plays in education and culture is often overshadowed by racism. In _the book 'The Heart of the Race', the authors, and the women speaking through t'he book, are in no doubt as to ' priorities: "For Black schoolgirls sexism has, it is true, played an insidious role in our lives. It has influenced our already limited career choices and has scarred our already tarnished self-image. But it is racism / which has detenained the schools we can attend and the quality of education we receive in them. "So it is our consciousness I as Black people, rather than as feminists, which has led us to take collective action against the education author ities. For us to campaign for non-se! · countries. We should use the opportunity to build unity with women elsewhere and learn· from positive examples · of NEVER DONE struggle and solidarity. In Norway, for example, the has had little impact -outside Women's Front promotes the some firms which are beginning fight for a 6 hour day for all to provide better workers. As long as "normal" opportunities for some of Present restrictions on work is seen as being the their top women and expensive · eight hour day, women . part nurseries for some top-paid temporary working are under attack in much of Europe. time workers will always be women. The current cost of treated as second-class childcare in central London, Holland has a ban . on running more than one temporary workers. The demand for a six for example, i~ over £400 a hour day for all workers month, contract end to end (a common trick in Britain). enables this gap to be closed. Other campaigns have got off In the Netherlands, the the ground to provide cheaper It is feared that 1992 will be tradition of linking community childcare to more women, with used . as a reason to lower and union organisation, has various schemes such as standards of employment law to been revived through the childcare vouchers, to be paid the British level. Women's Union whose membership for by employers or workplace includes women in paid nurseries. These are, of A newer form of casual labour employment and those not in course, to be welcomed. But has been widely · used in the paid work. The Norwegian they are mainly concentrated Netherlands where women have Women's Front also campaigns . in the Southeast zero hour contracts. Women on issues other than workplac~ are not guara~teed any work or struggles, for example, It is widely known that pay but break their· contract Britain has ·the worst record against pornography and sex on childcare in Europe. if they take other work or tours in Third World stray from the phone and thus countries. However, recent figures show make themselves unavailable. that as important as childcare 125,00'0 women in the We know also from the our own is the responsibility for· Netherlands are on such elderly dependants or disabled experience in Britain the contracts and supermarkets in importance of broadening relatives. As the state cuts · Britain are beginning to use back on care and promotes struggles away from narrow 'care in the community • ; this them. trade unionism. The strength means more work for women in of the miners' str uggle, for the home. In France, temporary example . lay in the broad employment crept in under a involvement · of whole 1979 law which permitted fixed com~unities, particularly of term (i.e. temporary) women. This was also the case contracts for the first time. in struggles fought by black Since then, there have been a workers, such as at Grunwicks series of measures culminating · Or Imperial Typewriters. They in a 1986 order which gives relied primarily on the the employer a free hand support of their communities provided · the contract refers not on the union bureaucracy. to a task not a job. The West German government brought in Particularly important for temporary contracts in 1985, women in Europe will be the arguing that it would reduce need to build solidarity with overtime. Now a substantial national minority women here number of new workers are only and women in the Third World. given temporary contracts. The steps to ' bring in "Fortress Europe", extending Many• mort examples could be FLEXIBILITY FOR WHOM? and strengthening controls and given to illustrate these repression of black people in Women in Britain and other trends. Most European Europe and at the same time, countries of Western Europe countries also now have increasing exploitation of the will play an increasing role stronger employment protection people of the Third World, are in the workforce but we are than in Britain, for example, already underlay. · being. told that we have to be minimum wages. However there flexible. Although women ·.are many ways that employers Homeworkers campaigns in welcome any flexibility that find to get round such laws. Britain have already begun to fits in with their needs, For example, they make make links with some present trends to make work homeworkers self-employed to .organisations such as SEWA, more flexible seem . to be more avoid minimum wage laws. In the Self Employed Women's about reducing costs for some countries, minimum wage Association, in India who have employers and finding ways legislation excludes part internatiopally given the lead round employment law. timers. in organising women working at home and in the "casual" In Britain, by 1985 · one third SOLIDARITY economy. of all workers, and half of working women, could already 1992 wiil be used to try and Imperialism operates on a be · classed as "flexible" in reduce gains that have been world scale and it is also · that they did . not h~ve full won. But we can learn from gives us many opportunities to fime permanent jobs. European women's position in different . build solidarity with women employers look with envy at countries of Europe · that· around the world, as . the Britain, where temporary capitalism has compromised in following example from the working is so widespread. . different ways in different - Philippines shows.a ·