Description
Book SynopsisThis first book-length study devoted to Marx's perspectives on gender and the family offers a fresh look at this topic in light of 21st century concerns. Although Marx's writings sometimes exhibit sexism, his work often transcends it. Brown studies those writings on gender, as well as his 1879-1882 notebooks on precapitalist societies and gender, some of them still unpublished in any language. This study attempts to fill a significant gap in the literature on Marx and offer some general insights into the intersectionality of gender and class.
Trade Review"This short, comprehensive handbook will no doubt provide the basis for a new wave of feminist engagement with Marxism and is a clarion call for all those who regard themselves as Marxists to re-evaluate their ideological conceptions." — Barry Healy, Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal Overall, from Marx on Gender and the Family emerges a dialectical Marxism, one that points to the beginnings of a unitary theory of gender and class. Noted throughout is that Marx did not systematically examine gender as a category and the aim of the book is not to try and construct one. Brown is not scared to highlight some of Marx’s failings, in particular when he falls back on prejudice or moralism when discussing the oppression of women … The most important aspect of the work is that in providing a systematic overview of the totality of Marx’s work on the topic, Brown is able to indicate openings for analysis that can construct the base for the redevelopment of a Marxist-feminist theory. —Jenny Morrison, International Socialist Group
"This short, comprehensive handbook will no doubt provide the basis for a new wave of feminist engagement with Marxism and is a clarion call for all those who regard themselves as Marxists to re-evaluate their ideological conceptions." Barry Healy, Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal Overall, from Marx on Gender and the Family emerges a dialectical Marxism, one that points to the beginnings of a unitary theory of gender and class. Noted throughout is that Marx did not systematically examine gender as a category and the aim of the book is not to try and construct one. Brown is not scared to highlight some of Marx’s failings, in particular when he falls back on prejudice or moralism when discussing the oppression of women
The most important aspect of the work is that in providing a systematic overview of the totality of Marx’s work on the topic, Brown is able to indicate openings for analysis that can construct the base for the redevelopment of a Marxist-feminist theory. Jenny Morrison, International Socialist Group
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements 1. Introduction Reevaluating and developing Marx for feminist theory today Overview of the book 2. The Early Writings on Gender and the Family The 1844 Manuscripts Labour and alienation Gender in the 1844 Manuscripts Women’s alienation in capitalist society Modes of production and the course of history Alienation, bourgeois morality and suicide Revisiting the nature/culture and man/woman dualisms Conclusion 3. Political Economy, Gender, and the ‘Transformation’ of the Family Engels’s ‘Principles of Communism’ in relation to gender and the family The Communist Manifesto Nature and society in Capital The political economy of Capital, Volume I Gender and the family in Capital Conclusion 4. Marx’s Journalism and Political Activities The Preston strikes and women’s labour The Bulwer-Lytton scandal Women and the First International Marx and the Kugelmanns Women and the Paris Commune After the Commune Conclusion 5. Patriarchy, Women’s Oppression and Resistance: Comparing Marx and Engels on Gender and the Family in Precapitalist Societies Marx’s notebooks and the history of The Origin of the Family Separating Marx from Engels Marx’s notebooks in historical context Morgan’s Ancient Society Marx’s notes on Morgan Engels’s Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State Engels’s uncritical acceptance of Morgan and Bachofen on women’s position in clan-societies Comparing Marx and Engels on gender 6. The Family, the State and Property-Rights: The Dialectics of Gender and the Family in Precapitalist Societies Maine’s Lectures on the Early History of Institutions Marx’s notes on Maine Marx’s notebooks on Ludwig Lange’s Römische Alterthümer Conclusion 7. Conclusion Evaluating Marx’s work on gender and the family for today References Index
