Women and class
IN
1904, THE YEAR THE SOCIALIST PARTY of Great Britain was formed, it was
usual for political parties to have their women helpers. There was the
Primrose League for the Conservatives and the Women's Liberal
Federation. In the Social Democratic Federation the membership of men
and women was on equal terms. The Object of that party included "the
establishment of Social and Economic equality between the sexes", and
the demand for "Equal, direct adult suffrage" had long been part of its
Programme.
The SPGB has only one section and that is for
socialists. The Party was formed by men and women, ex-members of the
SDF, who together drafted the Object and Declaration
of Principles.
Clause 4 states that the emancipation of th; working class will involve
the emancipation of all mankind "without distinction of race or sex".
The wording of this clause was no accident. It reflected the
understanding that
those founder members had of social evolution and
economics. In capitalism the majority of men and women have a common
class relationship in that they own no part of the means of production.
The class division in capitalist society cuts across all diffsrencss of
nationality, race or sex.
The earliest Socialist Standards
pointed out that the destinies of men and women are bound up together
and that Socialism is the only hope of the whole whole working class
irrespective of sex. Both sexes of the workers are exploited and suffer
as victims of ths class which owns the means of life. The emancipation
of woman can only come together with the emancipation of their class
through the realisation of Socialism.
That women held a
generally subordinate position before the capitalist era is not
disputed. Frederick Engels acknowledging the work of L. H. Morgan,
showed that the suppression of women had its origin in the rise of
private property. Some anthopologists, and the modern women's movement,
continue to attack this view of both Morgan and Engels but they fail to
provide a satisfactory explanation of human social development.
Through
centuries of change in property relations and the form of society,
leading in Western Europe to feudalism and then to capitalism, the
monogamous family and the dependence of women had become long
established. This was to have special significance for women workers,
when, late in the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution was to
produce social conditions recognisably like those of modern capitalism.
From
the earliest ages, women and children were economically productive in
the home. Prior to the industrial revolution families worked in the
expanding cottage industries. Village women took an active part in the
work connected with their family patch of ground and stock and helped
in the fields at harvest time. The growth of the factory system and of
capitalist agriculture involved a number of changes in the employment
of women. Cottage industries could not compete with factory production
and their decline meant the break up of many small rural households.
The move to the factories was not immediate and there was much
unemployment and misery for single women. During the Napoleonic wars
gangs of women began to be employed all the year round as field workers
on large farms. In the second half of the nineteenth century the
gradual increase in the field labourer's wages, and the use of
agricultural machinery, reduced female employment in agriculture.
The
industrial revolution condemned poor families to long hours of hard
work in the factories and coalmines, leaving little time or energy for
anything but the simplest meal and sleep. Yet despite the suffering and
discontent caused by the rapid expansion of capitalism it is precisely
this system which makes the emancipation of women feasible, since it
gave women a role in social production to be fulfilled outside the
home. However a role in social production does not in itself constitute
freedom.
The business establishments of the rising merchants and
manufacturers became separated from the home; as there was extensive
employment of domestic servants their wives were isolated with little
domestic work to do. They were subjected to the authority of their
husbands and were in the legal position of permanent minors. Women from
the 'middle class' were expected to marry. If they remained spinsters,
or were widowed, there was little prospect of suitable employment. In
1859 the supply of governesses exceeded the demand by 99%. (There was
an Educated Women's Emigration Society.) The early stirrings of protest
about their position as compared to men really came from these women.
Among the several demands made by women were for better education and
employment opportunities, and for the vote. Although as early as the
1780s William Pitt, Tory Prime Minister, and his Whig opponent, Charles
James Fox, had both been in favour of what they called 'universal'
franchise, it was only men they had in mind. (The possibility of
Parliament agreeing to this disappeared when the French Revolution in
1789 frightened the British ruling class.)
By the 19th century
political theory was developing towards the idea of individual voting
rights. The 1832 Reform Act was the first statutory bar to women voting
since it specifically enfranchised 'male persons' who had the necessary
property qualifications.
In that same year the issue of women
voting was first raised in parliament when 'Orator' Henry Hunt
presented a petition for the 'enfranchisement of unmarried females with
the necessary property qualifications'. Getting the vote was seen first
as a way of obtaining what they called social justice but the all
embracing demand was later whittled down to a demand for the vote. The
year 1866 marked the start of the continuing suffrage campaign
organised by women. In 1897 all existing societies devoted exclusively
to women's suffrage federated into the National Union of Suffrage
Societies. This was the chief constitutional association and, following
the death of Lydia Becker in 1890, was led by Mrs. Millicent Fawcett.
The 'militaar" Women's Social and Political Union, led by Mrs.
Pankhurst, was not formed until 1903. Both sections of ae movement,
militant and constitutional, sought the vote on the same terms as men.
Two further Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 had extended the franchise to
include all male householders (£10 franchise) which still left
one
third of adult males without the vote. Since a much larger proportion
of women would not qualify as householders the campaign essentially
aimed at votes for propertied women. Some of the campaigners thought
that with the vote they could look after the interests of the factory
girls. There was some support for WSPU activities among working class
women. The Women's Co-operative Guild supported women's suffrage.
The
SPGB refused any support to the suffrage campaign. A request for
financial help from Emmeline Pethick Lawrence (Socialist Standard April
1906) met with the reply that class consciousness must come first. Of
what use the vote when the working class used it against their own
interests. (The working class were already in the majority at the
ballot box by more than 3 to 1.) And "Sex equality could not be the
fruit of Suffragette humbug, it could come only through economic
equality — and economic equality is impossible except through
Socialism". (Socialist Standard June 1908.)
By 1918 when the
franchise was extended to women aged 30 (men at 21) many of the earlier
aims for which the vote was sought had in fact been realised. Women had
gained entry into universities, could become doctors and get divorced.
The 1882 Married Women's Property Act gave right of separate ownership
over every kind of property. In 1894 duly qualified married women were
permitted to vote in municipal elections. A right which single women
ratepayers had received 25 years earlier.
Changes which affected
a larger number of women came from the expansion of non-manual
occupations. In the 1870s when the Post Office gave effect to
government approval of the extended employment of women, the Postmaster
General stated that the attraction from the standpoint of the Post
Office as employer was that the women clerks would accept lower pay
than the men and would be more docile, i.e. would not want to join the
unions formed by men. Other employers counted on the same attitude.
Around the turn of the century there was increasing employment for
women in offices and in teaching. The first world war further
accelerated changes in female employment. Women were employed in almost
every kind of work, the exceptions being underground mining,
stevedoring and steel and iron smelting.
Admirers of the
suffragettes should remember both their limited objective and the
actions of these erstwhile champions of women's rights during the war.
The same kind of zeal used in the suffrage campaign was applied by them
to supporting the war. There were exceptions, notably Charlotte Despard
and Sylvia Pankhurst who couragousiy spoke against the war at public
meetings. Union membership among women rose from 360,000 in 1914 to
nearly 2,000,000 in 1918. The return of men from the war and high
unemployment meant a retreat for women from many occupations but
attitudes were permanently changed. By 1918 the number of domestic
servants had shrunk by 450,000 in Britain, though in 1931 domestic
servants still accounted for 23.8% of working women. The second world
war again brought women into the factories but the outstanding feature
of employment since the war is the increase of women in office work and
the service industries.
The modern Women's Liberation Movement
was formed first in the late sixties, in the United States. Its
promoters were women who had been active in the Students, Civil Rights
and Vietnam War Protest Movements. They objected to women's subordinate
position in society, which they said was also reflected in these
movements and in the so-called 'Left-wing' parties.
Similar
groups had been formed in Britain in 1968-9, but it was not until the
first national women's conference, held at Ruskin College in
February-March 1970, that a women's liberation movement could be said
to exist; though without formal membership. It was not a single unified
movement but consisted of small autonomous groups under, roughly, four
headings: (a) political, incorporating or accommodating left-wing aims;
(b) reformist, seeking particular improvements; (c) feminist,
endeavouring to promote 'female consciousness'; and (d) radical
feminist, rejecting women's biological role. Early feminist discontent
had many aspects but getting the vote became the main focus of
attention. The modern movement has no demand equivalent to the vote.
(It is, in fact, in existence became the vote in itself proved an
inadequate answer tc female subjection. Women as voters did not bring
to political life a new surge of determination to end exploitation and
war, as it was claimed it would during the suffrage campaign.) Though
it focused attention on the position of women in society it was in many
ways a reflection of changes already taking place. It was women who had
benefited from higher education who complained about their promotion
prospects. The women's liberation movement encompassed widely divergent
aims, ranging from concern with personal problems, obtaining equal
opportunities with men under capitalism and covering all the muddled
ideas associated with the so-called left. However, there are concerted
campaigns, for example, the National Abortion Campaign, and general
acceptance of the original four demands formulated at the Oxford
conference. These were equal pay, equal education and opportunities,
24-hour nurseries, and free contraception and abortion on demand.
The
Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Sex Discrimniation Act 1975 both came into
force on 29 December 1975. The intention was for the equal pay
requirements to be fully met by that date. The Equal Opportunities
Commission was set up to ensure effective enforcement of both Acts.
Like other reformist movements seeking by legislation to change the way
capitalism operates, the well-meaning people who sought equal pay and
opportunities for women disregarded the fact that the aim of the
employer, whether private company or state organisation, is to make
profit. Legal enforcement of higher wages for women (as happens with
minimum wage enforcement generally) decreases the low-pay attraction to
the employer of employing women. There are already indications that
unemployment among women, which was formerly less than among men, will
increase. As has also always happened in mimimum wage industries, at
time of heavy unemployment there will be widespread breaches of the law
by employers that will be accepted by women workers rather than lose
their jobs.
The Sex Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination,
on grounds of sex, in employment, education, credit and mortgage
facilities, etc. The Act gives legal enforcement to many feminist
demands, but its effectiveness with regard to employment and promotion
prospects will largely depend on the needs of capitalism. It was
economic necessity not women's liberation movements which opened all
kinds of careers to women in many countries as for example in Russia.
The
SPGB does not support women's liberation movements. Despite all the
theorising they turned out to be no different from all the other
movements which choose to put immediate demands before the socialist
aim of a revolutionary change in the social system. Claims were made
that the movements were not political, but most of their aims could
only be achieved, with support from political parties, through
government legislation. The likely success of these aims, and those
concerned with female conscicusness and personal relationships, have to
be seen against the background of capitalism. The vast majority of
women and men, including non-employed housewives and pensioners, belong
to the working class. It is membership of this class which places
limitations on the personal life of both sexes. The logical solution is
for one working class organisation having Socialism as its sole object.
Common
ownership, and democratic control, of the means of production and
distribution will mean the end of economic exploitation. Every human
being will have the same free access to the abundant social wealth.
There will be no possibility for any group to hold another in
subjection. Men and women will be free to arrange their personal lives
according to their individual choice. Whatever form the family will
take, parents will not have to care for their children in isolation and
childcare will not be the sole occupation open to men or women except
by choice.
We cannot emphasise too strongly that women have an equal opportunity
with men to work for Socialism.
|
 |
|
