Antagonism Between Men And Women
Women have always been oppressed by men, that
the antagonism between men and
women has its origin deep in human psychology
or biology, and that the way women
suffer in our society is nothing but the
same old story that has been going on
ever since human life began. This is
such a pessimistic view that it is hard to
understand why it is so popular
with feminists today. If women are put at a
disadvantage by human nature
itself, how can we ever change things? Either an
all-out war against men
could lead to men being forced to change their ways
without changing their
basically anti-women ideas; or a few women could separate
themselves off from
the rest of society and be free in a sense; or the human
race could be
destroyed by women refusing all co-operation with men. None of
these
conclusions can be very appealing for the majority of women. On the
other
hand, the view that women are oppressed simply because men (and most
women too)
have the wrong ideas about women can be too optimistic. Liberating
women is seen
as just a matter of persuasion and education, of explaining to
men that they
have got it wrong and that they really should share the
housework and the top
jobs because it would be more fair. History shows that
all ideas can change:
none are so deep-rooted in human nature that nothing
can be done about them. But
they can't be changed by persuasion, by the light
of reason alone, because ideas
depend on material relations between human
beings. The idea that black people
are inferior, for example, belongs to
societies that exploit black people,
either as slaves or as cheap labour. To
get rid of the idea once and for all we
have to get rid of the system that
produces the idea. This doesn't mean that we
can't argue or organise against
racism here and now, but it does mean that
persuading people that they have
the wrong ideas is only the first step to
getting rid of the society that is
responsible for them. The idea that women are
inferior comes from societies
that are divided into classes, where one set of
people control the labour of
others and enjoy wealth and power as a result. Our
own capitalist society is
far from being the first society divided into classes,
though we hope to make
it the last. In ancient Greece and Rome, slaves were
exploited by
slave-owners, in Europe in the middle ages lords lived off the
labour of
serfs on the land, and there have been variations of these societies
at other
times and places. With the rise of manufacture and the
Industrial
Revolution, those with wealth to invest as capital found new
ways to make
profits out of wage-earning men and women. In all these forms of
society, women
have been oppressed. But there have been, even in quite recent
times, societies
that were not divided into classes, and where women did not
have an inferior
position. These were the societies we call primitive, where
there was no
production other than the gathering of wild plants and hunting
of wild animals.
Nowadays, most of these societies have been affected by
contact with European
traders, rulers and missionaries, who have changed
their ways of life. But when
white men first came into contact with most of
the native tribes of North
America, Australia and the Pacific islands,
these were societies without classes
and in which women were as strong and as
powerful as men. When production was
simple and population low, women's role
as the bearers of children was important
and respected. Though men and women
might have their separate tasks and rituals,
women as well as men took part
in the most important decisions, such as whether
to move a settlement or make
war on another band or tribe. Couples might live
together with their
children, but sexual relations were more free and separation
easier than in
later societies. When production increased, agriculture appeared,
and flocks
and herds of animals were kept for food and wealth (for fields and
cattle
were the first forms of private property), class divisions began to
appear.
Men of wealth could make others work for them, buy slaves and take
advantage
of others' poverty. They began to own wives, too, like cattle, and
pass on
their wealth to their male children. As Engels argued a hundred years
ago, in
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, the oppression
of
women began when class society
began.