patriarchy
5 approaches to gender inequality
1) gender inequality as derivative of capitalist relations
(gender is ultimately class)
2) gender inequality as a result of an autonomous
system of patriarchy, which is the primary form of
social inequality
3) gender inequality as a consequence of the
interaction of autonomous systems of patriarchy and
capitalism
4) gender inequality as resulting from patriarchal
relations so intertwined with capitalist relations that
they form one system of capitalist patriarchy
patriarchy or capitalist patriarchy?
Problem with #2 and #3 is that they assume
capitalism does not depend on patriarchy. #4
permits exploration of the thesis that:
Capitalism cannot function without patriarchy and
the goal of capitalism, the ongoing process of
capital accumulation, cannot be achieved unless
patriarchal man-woman relations are maintained
and reproduced, often in new ways that support
the development of a capitalist economy.
totality of patriarchal relations under
capitalism
In addition, some see the totality of patriarchal
relations under capitalism as including the
oppressive relations of:
• --Men to women
• --Humans to nature
• --Colonizing nations to colonized (including
internal colonies within the colonizing world)
super-exploitation
In this view, exploitation of wage-labor under
capitalism depends on the super-exploitation
of women, colonies, and the natural world.
Recall that Marxian exploitation is the
appropriation of surplus value, the value
produced by workers over and above that
which is necessary to reproduce themselves
(subsistence wage)
Super-exploitation may occur in a number of
ways. One is if work is unpaid. Then
appropriation of necessary labor time is
occurring, not just surplus labor time.
Another is when the worker or their families
are producing some part of the means of
subsistence, then the wage paid may be lower
than the means of subsistence and so is superexploitation.
household labor
• Some feminists have criticized attempts to show
that housework is productive labor and produces
surplus value as viewing gender inequality as
derivative of capitalist class relations, while
others have criticized the dualist view as seeing
capitalism as non-patriarchal in and of itself.
•
• Whatever the approach, according to the United
Nations, women do 2/3 of the world’s work,
receive 10% of income, and own 1% of the
wealth.
social reproduction
Until recently, analyses of social reproduction
focused only on the sphere of markets and
commodity production and exchange. Models
such as Quesnay’s tableaux and Marx’s
schemes of reproduction, while extremely
useful for analyzing both macroeconomic
conditions of reproduction and inter-industry
requirements for system reproduction,
focused exclusively on market exchanges.
feminist political economy concept of
labor and labor-power
The exclusive focus on market relations arguably
neglects some of the most crucial labor-power
involved in the process of social reproduction.
The very concepts of labor and labor-power in
most models only recognize wage-labor, and
not any of the labor that is done in the home
and in the community, much of it by women.
work of social reproduction
As many have now argued, market reproduction
would be virtually impossible absent this
important “work of social reproduction,” which
Antonella Picchio describes as including:
the labour involved in maintaining living spaces,
buying and transforming the commodities used in
the family, supplementing the services provided
to family members by the public and private
sectors (e.g. health, education, transport,
administration), and managing social and
personal relationships. To this, which represents
the great bulk of unpaid work, the care of people
has to be added.
patriarchy: from ‘time immemorial’?
• Patriarchal systems are not timeless universal
systems or relations.
•
• If patriarchy had a beginning, it may also have
an end. So, just as in the case of racism, it is
important to address the question of whether
there have ever existed non-patriarchal
societies.
non-patriarchal societies
• Ammott and Matthaei in Race, Gender, and Work provide
evidence from Native American societies that had gender
divisions of labor, but that were not unequal. Women had
rights, including voting rights, and power. They did not
have men overseeing their work.
•
• Leacock provides additional evidence in her book Myths of
Male-Dominance.
•
• The Maasai also provide a good example. Maasai women
controlled their own household, the distribution of milk,
and the inheritance of cattle.
pre-capitalist Europe
In Europe, gender relations were quite different
prior to the rise of capitalism. People like Carolyn
Merchant argue that things were different prior
to capitalism, which she also associates with an
organic—whereas under capitalism there is a
mechanistic—view of nature; for example women
had important roles as mid-wives and healers
prior to capitalism. With the rise of capitalism
and western science, male surgeons took charge
of reproductive activities, and women were
persecuted as witches.
patriarchy
• A society is patriarchal to the extent that it is
male-dominated, male-identified, and malecentered.
•
• One of its key characteristics is the oppression
of women.
male domination
• Male-dominated means that positions of authority and
power—political, economic, legal, religious, educational,
military, domestic—are generally reserved for men.
•
• When a woman is able to obtain such a position in a patriarchal
society, it is exceptional, and her competence is measured with
respect to men.
•
• This means that male dominance creates power differences
allowing men to obtain and control larger shares of wealth and
income.
•
• Male-dominance allows men to shape culture in ways that
reflect and serve male interests.
male domination
Men are generally viewed as superior in patriarchal
cultures. Even in areas where they are not
viewed as superior, such as care-giving, cooking,
and cleaning, the lack of competence is often
viewed as a sign of superiority, a trained
incapacity that protects their privileged status
(“You change the diaper, I’m no good at that.”) or
where the incompetence is associated with
competence in more important activities (“I don’t
have time for washing dishes.”)
male identification
• In a patriarchal society men as a group are identified with
superiority even though most men do not hold positions of
power in their individual lives.
•
• Patriarchal societies are male-identified in that in that the
core ideas about what is good, desirable, normal, etc., are
associated with how we think about men and masculinity.
•
• A simple example that has changed some but still is
relevant is the use of male pronouns to represent people in
general. “Mankind” or simply “he” and “his” as general
referents.
•
male-identification
• Male-identification means that men and men’s lives are the
standard for what is normal.
•
• The core values of society are primarily those associated with
men in a patriarchal society. Toughness, logic, forcefulness,
competitiveness, control, emotional cool, etc.
•
• These qualities are those associated with the work most valued
in patriarchal societies—business, politics, war, athletics.
•
• Qualities such as cooperativeness, sharing, compassion, caring,
are all devalued and associated with femininity and
femaleness.
male-identification
It doesn’t matter that some qualities associated with
women are prized, such as physical beauty, because
these are also part of the process of male control and
possession of women. Often there are sentimental
feelings associated with these qualities especially with
respect to mothers (Mother’s Day, Secretary’s Day,
etc.), because this doesn’t effect the day to day
treatment of women and is part of the larger culture of
male-domination. It doesn’t result in support for
adequate and affordable child care for working
mothers or family leave policies for women to attend
the activities supposedly prized.
male-identification
• Leadership in general is gendered, male-identified. For a
woman to be a leader she must exhibit qualities associated
with male-ness. The more powerful a woman becomes in a
patriarchal society the more “unsexed” she becomes in the
eyes of others.
•
• Of course, patriarchy can accommodate a limited number
of women in positions of power, just as white supremacy
can accommodate a limited number of Blacks in positions
of power. But almost without exception, women who
obtain positions of substantial power in patriarchal
societies must embrace the core values of patriarchy.
male-centeredness
• Male-centeredness means that the focus of
attention is always on men and what they do.
Newspaper stories, tv shows, movies, etc., are
about men and portray women in sexist ways.
•
• Male experience is the human experience.
Men tend to be the center of attention,
control the conversation.
housewifization
• For some authors, the key to understanding this
feminization of poverty is the domestication or
housewifization of women.
•
• Proletarianization is the process of turning serfs,
peasants, and subsistence producers into wage-laborers
under capitalism
•
• Domestication or housewifization is a comparable and
related process.
•
• The housewife is not a timeless role resulting from
women’s natural predisposition but is the product of
specific historical forces and circumstances.
housewifization
• Verronika Bennholdt-Thomsen argues that:
•
1) the concrete activities carried out by housewives is
very diverse, varying across regions and continents—
but that there are structural commonalities to this
work; and
2) the work and status of housewives comprises more
than childcare and maintenance of household—
includes some paid work, market activity, e.g., and
some men participate in child care and housework.
housewifization
• it is not what she does but the relations under
which she does it that characterizes the
housewife
•
• mostly it means unpaid, lower paid work vs.
men’s paid and highly paid work
housewifization
With the monetization and commoditization
associated with capitalism, women can no longer
live autonomously with their children in a world
in which money is necessary and women have
such restricted access to money-making
opportunities. Growing propertylessness forces
women to suit to dependence on men. This is
coercive, and cooperative relations between men
and women decline, and their relation becomes
hierarchical.
housewifization
Housewives existed before capitalism but there
was a qualitative difference. Women did not
perform work that was subordinate but which
was equally valuable and necessary. Men and
women cooperated in the whole household.
The distinction between private and public did
not exist in the same sense.