The second article in this series discussed the economic basis of patriarchy under feudalism and its manifestations in terms of marriage relations and sexual exploitation of women from oppressed castes. In this article we will discuss patriarchy under capitalism.
Historically, capitalism has been a progress from feudalism. For the first time women could actually dream of an existence independent of the men in their family. This was also the first time bourgeois feminist ideas could develop that boldly demanded the equality of men and women in the society, albeit in a very class-limited manner. Women got some independence in matters of choosing husbands, however in bourgeois families the role of women remained of producing an heir for passage of property.
Most importantly, capitalism brought with it the industrial working class as millions shifted to cities, uprooted from their traditional village economies. Women and children were absorbed into this workforce too to fill the hungry belly of large-scale production. Thus, not just men’s, but also women’s labour power became a commodity in this new kind of society. For the first time, women en masse became a public part of social production through wage-labour relations.
However, society under capitalism remains a class-divided society where divisions within the workforce help capitalists to generate more profit. Jobs forced onto women are dubbed ‘unskilled’ or ‘semi-skilled’ forms of labour. As for other gender or sexual minorities, they continue to be shunned from the mainstream even under capitalism. Although formal equality has been legislated in a few places, it is yet to be seen in practice.
Similar to feudal society, capitalism continues the gendered division of labour within the industrial complex by designating a certain class of ‘light’ work as being suitable for women, e.g.- sweeping, nursing, teaching, garment/footwear works, secretaryship, etc. For jobs with participation of both men and women, capitalism extracts greater profit out of women’s labour by creating a substantial wage gap. The whole mass of women also serve as a reserve army for the capitalists by keeping the price of labour power (wages) down. Capitalism perpetuates the myth of women being the ‘weaker sex’ by creating this artificial division both in terms of work and pay. Even if we look at family units, due to this apparently expendable nature of work and pay, women’s incomes always pay a supplementary character in the total household earnings with the man being deemed as the ‘breadwinner’ requiring extra pampering. Hence, women are often demanded to sacrifice their financial autonomy to do greater care-giving work at home.
Further capitalism accrues the greatest profit from keeping women stuck in domestic drudgery. It thrives on the basis of millions of women giving unpaid labour at home by cooking, cleaning, sweeping, nursing, and child-rearing. If these were to be shunned by women, it would have cost the state under capitalism to pump a lot of money into building a socialised process of giving domestic labour and bringing up newer generations. By keeping the women shackled in kitchens, capitalists keep their pockets fat all the while ensuring a steady supply of workers, both current and future. This particular process of production and reproduction of labour power that in entirety remains unpaid, is shouldered by women. A male proletariat is taken care of, fed, and replenished with the labour power to toil
for another day at the factory by his wife at home. He feels entitled to not partake in household labour causing disunity on gender lines within the proletarian family. This unpaid labour by women maintains a connection between social and domestic spheres of production. Another feature of the imperialist stage of capitalism is the exploitation of super-profits by imperialist nations from the dependent nations. Search for better lives also causes a lot of migration to these imperialist nations from ‘developing’ countries. Most of these immigrant women are forced to do menial jobs as domestic workers, cleaners, etc.
In summary it can be said that the fundamental shift in position of women that capitalism brings about is their commodification. From women being treated at par with cattle under feudalism, capitalism draws women into social production to commodify their labour power. Besides that, mainstream media today survive on sexualising and objectifying female bodies. Commodification of women’s bodies has also given rise to an exploitative multi-billion dollar sex trade that offers ‘pleasure’ in different forms. Women from developing nations often are the worst victims.
Patriarchy helps capitalism to maintain a status quo on the basis of appropriation of surplus from women’s labour. While it creates a basis for bourgeois women to demand equal status in the society, capitalism preserves patriarchy to further itself and create divisions on gender lines within the toiling masses. The struggle for half the sky thus takes a more intense form under capitalism.
