Redefining the Question of Revolution

Abstract

The Marxist concept of revolution is that the means of production should be taken away from those who currently own them. But even after removal of productive properties from the once-ruling classes, women's oppres sion has continued, in socialist countries. Socialists explain this, inadequately, in two ways: either as a problem of inherited consciousness and ideology lagging behind structural economic change; or, as a problem of underdevelopment, forc ing women to continue sacrificing equality, no matter what class takes control. I have been pursuing a further problem: what other structural economic changes must be made to free women from oppression? Like a Marxist, I am looking for a material basis; as a feminist, I am looking for what is going on underneath the problems identified by Marxism as well.