The Root Of Female Subjugation - 1258 Words

Marlee Taylor Taylor1 02/26/15 ANT3302 SEC9618 Dr. Khadidja Arfi Paper One: Marx Engels Identifying the root of female subjugation in society is a conundrum that extends over numerous decades and on into present day, time and time again. Some scholars and feminists have frequently deemed the biological make-up of woman and their aptitude to reproduce the source of gender oppression. It seems the natural ability to give birth is often contended whether or not to be a restrictive factor of female activity. In a modern society as industrialized and innovative as present day where attention is much more focused on supple thoughts, the masculinity of the physical male becomes an untenable reason for superiority over the organic†¦show more content†¦Karl Marx rationalizes why he blames the social shift in production as one of the seeds that generated female coercion and began the destruction of the societal kinship. In order to understand the development of woman subjugation, one must first understand how exchanging production and private prop erty steered the growth of a bourgeoisie society, an amateur system of capitalism. In part one of his text â€Å"The German Ideology† Marx declares, â€Å"†¦the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it† (Marx, 2). This is often justified as a pivotal moment in the emergence of male gendered domination among society. The development of the small patriarchal groups separating from the clan commanded each member be responsible for the economical upkeep in the unit, and for woman that meant giving birth to offspring and nurturing new generations. This erupts the conception of female becoming confined to domesticated work and the development of the women’ s â€Å"thought to be† gender role in society. As one flips through the collaborated research of Marx and Engels in â€Å"The Family, Private Property and the State†, it can be noticed that Engels implied that the subjugation of women can