One hundred years ago, 15,000 women marched on March 8 in the streets of New York demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. That demonstration is widely recognized as the root of what later became International Women’s Day.
|
In his article “Capitalism and Female Labor,” Lenin wrote: “All the oppressed and exploited classes throughout the history of human societies have always been forced … to give up to their oppressors, first, their unpaid labor and, second, their women as concubines for the ‘masters.’ Slavery, feudalism and capitalism are identical in this respect. It is only the form of exploitation that changes; the exploitation itself remains.” (May 5, 1913; Pravda No.102) Within class society, women’s oppression has always been used as a tool of class rule.
The struggle for women’s rights has only heightened since the birth of capitalism. As capitalism developed, women’s work expanded from the confined realms of unpaid exploitation in the home to paid exploitation in the workplace. Women became a vibrant sector of the working class—and the working-class struggle.
Women have played important roles in every revolutionary movement across the globe. We have fought and won great gains in equality for ourselves as an oppressed group.
Over the last hundred years, women in the United States have won the right to vote, the right to an abortion and the right to divorce among other victories. Each step toward equal rights for women is a step forward for the working class. Each is a blow to the capitalist ruling class’s efforts to divide and further exploit workers. These gains are the product of struggle.
While women have secured rights that we did not have 100 years ago, there is still a long fight ahead of us.
Women in the United States today live without any guarantee of full equality, whether economic or social. This is particularly true for working-class women and women of color, who confront the twin realities of economic exploitation and institutionalized racism.
We must be—and are—on constant alert against the rollback of gains we have won. The right-wing offensive against Roe v. Wade shows that previous victories are not secured in capitalist society. Women responded to these attacks en masse in the 2004 March for Women’s Lives. More than one million women and their allies converged in Washington, D.C., to defend the right to choose.
Economic inequality persists. In 2006, white women earned 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. Black women and Latina women earned 68 cents and 57 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by white men. That year, 67 million women were employed in the United States, roughly 47 percent of the total workforce. Women’s oppression is incredibly profitable for the corporate bosses.
Violence against women remains an entrenched societal problem. More than 2.5 million women experience violence each year. Violence against women includes domestic abuse, rape, harassment and other forms of gender-based attack.
Formal equality, economic and social inequality
Unequal pay and violence are only two of a myriad of different ways in which the oppression of women manifests itself in capitalist society. Women’s oppression is cultivated and maintained by the capitalist class in order to drive a wedge between workers. This division weakens workers’ struggles and paves the way for the profitable super-exploitation of women.
The capitalist state has legally addressed issues of women’s equality to some extent—always at the demand of the women’s movement. The Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963. The 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision reflected the undeniable strength of the women’s movement. The Violence Against Women Act was approved in 1994, providing funds for addressing violence against women.
In 1920, Lenin wrote: “Capitalism combines formal equality with economic and, consequently, social inequality. This is one of the principal distinguishing features of capitalism, one that is mendaciously screened by the supporters of the bourgeoisie, the liberals, and that is not understood by the petty-bourgeois democrats. Out of this distinguishing feature of capitalism, by the way, the necessity arises, while fighting resolutely for economic equality, openly to recognize capitalist inequality. …”
Although written 88 years ago, these words still hold true for the struggle for women’s rights in the United States. There is a formal equality for women today, but a handful of statistics easily show that economic and social inequalities remain pervasive.
This year, 2008, Hillary Clinton is running for president of the United States. This is not the first time a woman has run for president, but it is the first when a woman has a real shot at winning. Liberal feminists and others would have us believe that this is a real victory for women. This is merely a manifestation of growing formal equality.
Clinton does not represent the interests of women as a whole. Nor does she represent the interests of working-class women and issues particularly facing women of color. She represents the interests of the capitalist ruling class and will continue to do so if elected. This includes waging war at home and abroad—wars that directly affects the lives of millions of women.
The election of a woman president in bourgeois elections will not truly address the inherent economic and social inequality women face under capitalism. That can only begin to be achieved by a truly militant and independent women’s movement that is part of a larger movement for social change.
In order to succeed, the struggle for women’s rights must be a struggle against racism and bigotry, a struggle for workers and a struggle for equality. Our ultimate victory requires eliminating the economic basis for women’s oppression—the capitalist system, which tramples over people’s needs in its restless drive for profits.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is running a working-class, socialist campaign in the 2008 U.S. elections to demand economic and social rights that truly speak to the needs of working and poor women, for all the working class. Embodied in our program is the message that a fighting movement of all workers and oppressed will guarantee full women’s and workers’ rights.
