The Real Dualism of Sex and Class

Susan Hmmelweit
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Susan Hmmelweit: Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, England.

Review of Radical Political Economics, 1984, vol. 16, issue 1, 167-183

Abstract: This paper argues that the dualism between class struggle and sex struggle, both in political practice and theoretical analysis, reflects a real separation of the struggles in current society. But that separation is not a trans-historical necessity. Rather it is a socially specific product of capitalist development, which has singled out production activities and allowed them to dominate over all other activities. But it is only within reproductive activities that sexes can be identified; hence reproduction remains an essential locus of sex struggle. The appearance that production is inherently separate from, and dominant over, reproduction has given class struggle an apparent separateness and superiority over sex struggle. But the separateness of the two struggles and predominance of production are not inevitable. Rather they are crucial aspects of what must be challenged in our society.

Date: 1984
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:16:y:1984:i:1:p:167-183

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