The Problen of Marxisn and Feminism (r ro feminism and Marxism Feminist observations of women's situation in socialist countries, state and productive power overturn work relations, they do not though not conclusive on the contribution of marxist theory to overturn sex relations at the same time or in the same way, as a class uNderstanding womENS Have supported the feminist th alvis of icI. and in sme tasts di. predict and promise retical critique. In the feminist view, socialist countries have solved Sexual visions e. lo exampie. is un I guti. Nt inet (es hiology 1) many social pproblems-women's subordination not included. The ocialism, both of which purport to alter woimen's ruic at the point of criticism is not that socialism has not automatically liberated women production, has ever yet equalized womnen's status relative to meEt in the process of transforming production(assuming that this trans- even in the workforce. Nothing has. Sex equality appears to require formation is occurring). Nor is it to diminish the significance of such separate effort-an effort with necessary economic dimensions, poten- changes for women: There is a difference between a society in which d by a revolutionary regime and shaped by transformed ism is expressed in the form of female infanticide and a society in relations to production-but a separate effort nonetheless. In light of which sexism takes the form of unequal representation on the Central these experiences, women's struggles, whether under capitalist or ommittee. And the difference is worth dying for. Some feminists, socialist regimes, appear to feminists to have more in common with however, have more difficulty separating the two: "It seems to me that each other than with marxist a country that wiped out the tsetse fly can by fiat put an equal number Attempts to create a synthesis between marxism and feminism of women on the Central Committee. "9 The basic feminist criticism is termed socialist-feminism, have recognized neither the separate integ hat these countries do not make a priority of working to change rity of each theory nor the depth of the antagonism between them womens status relative to men that distinguishes them from nonso- Many attempts at a unified theory began as an effort to justify women's cialist societies in the hat their pursuit of other goals distin- struggles in marxist terms, as if only that could make them legitimate. uishes them. Capitalist countries value women in terms of their Although feminism has largely redirected its efforts from justifying merit"by male standards; in socialist countries women seem invisible itself within any other perspective to developing a perspective of its xcept in their capacity as"workers. "This term seldom includes the own, this anxiety lurks under many synthetic attempts. The juxtapo- work that remains women's distinctive service to men, regardless of sitions that result emerge as unconfronted as they started feminist or the politics of those men: housework, prostitution and other sexual exist, usually the latter. Socialist-feminist practice often divides typically tional cross- barely mentioned. The concern of socialist and socialist revolutionary memberships and mutual support on specific issues, with more leadership for ending women's confinement to traditional roles too support by women of issues of the left than by the left of womens often seems limited to making their labor available to the regime, issues. Women with feminist sympathies urge attention to womens leading feminists to wonder whose interests are served by this version sues by left or labor groups; marxist women pursue issues of class of liberation. Women become as free as men to work outside the hom within feminist groups; explicitly socialist-feminist groups come while men remain free from work within it. The same pattern occurs ogether and divide, often at the hyphen nder capitalism. When woman's labor or militancy suits the needs of Most attempts at synthesis try to integrate or explain the mergency, she is suddenly man's equal, only to regress when the feminism by incorporating issues feminism identifies as central--the urgency recedes. Feminists do not argue that it means the same to family, housework, sexuality, reproduction, socialization, personal women to be on the bottom in a feudal regime, a capitalist regime life--within an essentially unchanged marxian analysis. According d a socialist regime. The commonality is that, despite real changes, to what type of marxist the theorist is, women become a caste,a stratum, a cultural group, a division in civil society, a secondary bottom is bottom Where such attitudes and practices come to be criticized, as in Cuba contradiction, or a nonantagonistic contradiction. Women's liberation becomes a precondition, a measure of societys general emancipation ina, changes appea hey do in capitalist countries, even where the effort looks major. If seizures of part of the superstructure, or an important aspect of the class struggle