Marx on gender and the family: a critical study

243 Pages·2013·2.618 MB·English

by  Marx, Karl;Brown, Heather A

Marx on Gender and the Family
Historical
Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen, Paris – Steve Edwards, London
Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam – Peter Thomas, London
VOLUME 39
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/hm
Marx on Gender
and the Family
A Critical Study
By
Heather A. Brown
LEidEn • BOSTOn
2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Brown, Heather A.
Marx on gender and the family : a critical study / by Heather A. Brown.
p. cm. – (Historical materialism book series, iSSn 1570-1522 ; v. 39)
includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
iSBn 978-90-04-21428-6 (hardback : alk. paper) – iSBn 978-90-04-23048-4 (e-book) 1. Marx, Karl,
1818–1883 – Views on sex role. 2. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883 – Views on families. i. Title.
HX39.5.A213 2012
306.8 – dc23
2012012692
iSSn 1570-1522
iSBn 978 90 04 21428 6 (hardback)
iSBn 978 90 04 23048 4 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill nV, Leiden, The netherlands.
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idC Publishers and Martinus nijhoff Publishers.
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Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... ix
1 introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Reevaluating and developing Marx for feminist theory today ............ 4
Overview of the book ................................................................................. 8
2 The Early Writings on Gender and the Family ....................................... 11
The 1844 Manuscripts .................................................................................. 12
di Stefano, voluntarism and transcendence ....................................... 12
Overcoming hierarchical dualisms ....................................................... 16
naturalism and humanism .................................................................... 18
Marx and human nature ........................................................................ 22
Labour and alienation ............................................................................ 23
Gender in the 1844 Manuscripts ................................................................. 28
Alienation and gender ............................................................................ 28
Feminist theory and the 1844 Manuscripts ........................................... 31
‘Crude Communism’, private property, and women ........................ 33
Women’s alienation in capitalist society ................................................. 35
Modes of production and the course of history ..................................... 39
The family and class-society .................................................................. 40
On the ‘Bourgeois Family’ ..................................................................... 43
Alienation, bourgeois morality and suicide ............................................ 44
Revisiting the nature/culture and man/woman dualisms .................. 49
Conclusion ................................................................................................... 50
3 Political Economy, Gender, and the ‘Transformation’ of the Family .. 52
Engels’s ‘Principles of Communism’ in relation to gender and the
family ........................................................................................................ 53
The Communist Manifesto ............................................................................ 55
Gender and the family in The Communist Manifesto ........................... 57
vi • Contents
nature and society in Capital ................................................................... 61
nature and the labour-process ............................................................ 63
necessity and freedom ......................................................................... 64
The political economy of Capital, Volume i ........................................... 65
The dual nature of labour and commodities ..................................... 65
Feminist critiques of Marx on production and reproduction ......... 66
Production, consumption and reproduction in capitalism ............. 70
‘Productive’ and ‘unproductive’ labour ............................................ 76
Gender and the family in Capital ............................................................ 78
‘The Working day’ and ‘Machinery and Large-Scale industry’ .... 78
The effects of machinery on women .................................................. 81
Women and morality ............................................................................ 84
The dialectics of the struggle over the working-day ....................... 88
Reprising the ‘transformation’ of the family in Capital ................... 92
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 97
4 Marx’s Journalism and Political Activities ............................................ 99
The Preston strikes and women’s labour .............................................. 100
The Bulwer-Lytton scandal ..................................................................... 105
Women and the First international ........................................................ 112
Marx and the Kugelmanns ...................................................................... 116
Women and the Paris Commune ............................................................ 118
After the Commune .................................................................................. 126
Critique of the Gotha Programme ............................................................ 126
Labour, nature, and wealth in the Critique of the Gotha
Programme ........................................................................................... 129
‘The Programme of the Parti Ouvrier’ ............................................... 130
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 132
5 Patriarchy, Women’s Oppression and Resistance: Comparing
Marx and Engels on Gender and the Family in Precapitalist
Societies ...................................................................................................... 133
Marx’s notebooks and the history of Engels’s
The Origin of the Family ......................................................................... 134
Separating Marx from Engels .................................................................. 136
Marx, feminism and dialectics ............................................................ 139
Marx’s notebooks in historical context .................................................. 146
Morgan’s Ancient Society .......................................................................... 147
Marx’s notes on Morgan .......................................................................... 149
The dialectics of the family .................................................................. 151
Contents • vii
Slavery, the patriarchal family, and monogamy .............................. 154
Women’s historical position and subjectivity ................................... 158
Engels’s Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State .................. 163
Feminist responses to ‘Origin of the Family’ .................................... 164
Unilinearism and economic determinism ......................................... 165
Similarities and differences on patriarchal society and its
historical significance ....................................................................... 168
Engels’s uncritical acceptance of Morgan and Bachofen on
women’s position in clan-societies ................................................. 170
Comparing Marx and Engels on gender and the family ..................... 173
6 The Family, the State and Property-Rights: The dialectics of
Gender and the Family in Precapitalist Societies ................................. 176
Maine’s Lectures on the Early History of Institutions ............................... 177
Marx’s notes on Maine ............................................................................. 178
The patriarchal family and the clan .................................................... 181
Fosterage and the ancient-irish family .............................................. 185
The position of women in ancient-irish society ................................ 188
Women’s property-rights in indian society ...................................... 190
Suttee in indian society ......................................................................... 195
Marx’s notebooks on Ludwig Lange’s Römische Alterthümer ............. 199
Class-conflict, the development of the state and
the position of women ...................................................................... 200
Arrogation, Patria Potestas and women ............................................. 201
Marriage and Manus ............................................................................. 202
Property and inheritance-rights .......................................................... 204
Guardianship ......................................................................................... 205
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 207
7 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 210
Evaluating Marx’s work on gender and the family for today ............ 218
References ........................................................................................................ 221
index ................................................................................................................. 229

Acknowledgements
in the process of researching and writing this book i have incurred a number
of debts. Berenice Carroll, Janet Afary, and Ann Marie Clark all provided
helpful comments during the dissertation-phase. Kevin B. Anderson assisted
throughout the entire process, reading the manuscript numerous times, pro-
viding insightful feedback and encouragement. Roger durham also assisted
and provided his encouragement for the project. i would also like to thank
Sebastian Budgen and Peter Thomas for their assistance during the editorial
process as well as two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Finally, i would like to thank david norman Smith and the editors of the
MEGA Project for generously allowing me access to their English translations
of Marx’s notes on Morgan, Maine and Lange.
This project was completed while at Purdue University and Aquinas Col-
lege. it was made possible, in part, through a Purdue Research Foundation
Grant and the Aquinas College Professional development Mini-Grant.
Certainly, none of this would have been possible without the support,
encouragement and understanding of my family, especially my parents.