Last time we looked at what exactly socialist feminism is, but what have socialist feminists had to do with women’s struggles? During early industrialisation, women’s work was hard and ideas that women were not strong enough to carry out all roles were common. Eventually male workers claimed that competition between men and women in the work force would lead to lower wages for men; so male workers demanded women and children be pushed out of many factories, forcing women into the home. Even so, working class women remained exploited at work as well as in the home.
In the late 19th Century Germany socialist feminists such as Clara Zetkin became active within organisations like SDP (Socialist Democratic Party.) Zetkin was the secretary of the International Socialist Women and the editor of the SDP journal Equality.
Zetkin and another socialist feminist of the time - Rosa Luxemburg - often cruised the leadership of the SDP. They both fought for peace in WW1 by forming the Spartacus League. As a socialist feminist, Zetkin realised that it was vital to have women socialists involved in Trade Unions, and fighting for women’s rights. However, key to her understanding was that she saw the main task as ‘awakening the women’s class consciousness and incorporating it into the class struggle’ (Speech at the Party Congress of the SDP, Gotha, October 16th, 1896) She saw working class women as fighting a different struggle to bourgeois women, who fight a struggle with working class men for an end to class society.
The issue of suffrage was also important. Whilst some socialists were campaigning for votes for men only socialist feminists like Sylvia Pankhurst wanted universal suffrage. Even when the relatively militant WSPU (Women’s Social Political Union) and Emmeline and Christabel were campaigning for votes for rich women, Sylvia was organising in the East End. She got women onto the streets campaigning for working class women’s needs, and selling copies of women’s newspaper Dreadnought. During the war she was a pacifist and opened mother and baby clinics. Like other suffragettes, Sylvia spent time in prison, and on hunger strike, many times her East End marches were attacked. However Sylvia also gave up her status and comfortable life to fight for socialism.
During the 1960’s a new wave of the women’s movement was encouraged by radicalism in CND, student protests and the struggles of the civil rights movement. Many women were involved in campaigns to change women’s roles in society, from sexuality, the welfare state, childcare and peace camps like Greenham Common.
In 1968 feminism in Britain was given a boost when sewing machinist women at Dagenham and Halewood Ford struck for equal pay against sex discrimination in pay grading. This inspired other women to campaign for equal pay and eventually Barbara Castle’s equal pay act came into force in 1975.
The Women’s Movement of the 1970’s had many valuable demands. However their emphasis on personal matters failed to meet the demands of working class women. Overall, women’s militancy has been hindered by a lack of support from men in Trade Unions but also from the Left’s strong tendency to deny women feminist identities.
Women’s political history is vast and barely touched on here. It teaches us that we must change our outlook to meet the oppression in society. All struggles also indicate we learn lessons of unity beyond the dispute. The history of socialist feminism indicates we must build a women’s movement capable of winning and that true liberation cannot be sought under capitalism.
