[lbo-talk] new spirit of capitalism

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Oct 9 07:18:44 PDT 2007


On Oct 9, 2007, at 7:31 AM, Lenin's Tomb wrote:


> So, for example, the struggle against the legal disenfranchisement
> of women
> at various levels has produced real and necessary successes, but
> due to the
> limited nature of the gains, due to the fact that they were
> separated from
> the issue of the labour system that perpetuates the subordination
> of women,
> they have enabled capitalism to persist with a gender hierarchy while
> declaring formal equality.

I wouldn't entirely agree with this - some of the gains have been against discrimination in the labor market and access to credit and property ownership. So the material basis of gender inequality has been partly undermined. But I don't see all that much of a loss in that achievement, which you do, and Yoshie apparently more so. What's the counterfactual? Had there been no feminist movement the fight against capitalism would be in better shape? I doubt it. The capitalist restoration since the 1980s has come along with a backlash against feminism, no?

Doug



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