Lise Vogel: Marxism and the Oppression of Women

12th May 2015, 21h, Cinema Europa, Zagreb, Croatia 8th Subversive Film Festival “Spaces of Emancipation: Micropolitics and Rebellions“ Moderated by: Ankica Čakardić Lise Vogel: Marxism and the Oppression of Women “In this lecture I will talk about my book Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory, first published in 1983, and then reissued in 2013 in the revised form. The original book was conceived as an intervention into heated discussions among socialist feminists of the time. There were two opposing theoretical approaches dealing with the oppression of women: the first one, dubbed a “dual systems theory“, popular among socialist feminists, advocated for the perception of gender and class as distinctive (or at least autonomous) systems. The second, which I named “social reproduction theory“, tried to place female oppression more directly within the Marxist understanding of the capital functioning. By the time the book Marxism and the Oppression of Women was published, the majority of social movements from the previous decades were in a state of decline. The feminist movement persisted, but much through liberal-feminist appropriation, becoming more and more internalized and often co-opted. The efforts to unite socialism and feminism had never been completely abandoned, but they were reduced to an extremely small number of voices. Thirty years after the original publishing, the reissue of the book Marxism and the Oppression of Women (2013) was published. Besides the original text, this version contains a new introduction, written by Sarah Ferguson and David McNally, as well as an additional article of mine, first published in 2000. Interestingly, it seems that its many new readers and interpreters have given precedence to the social reproduction theory, and not the dual systems perspective. In my presentation, I will first deal with the historical, theoretical, political and personal context of the original book, and offer a review of the book’s main arguments. Then I will look upon some of the messages that could be useful for the development of theory and practice which is at the same time both feminist and Marxist.“ Lise Vogel, a veteran of the U.S. civil-rights and women’s-liberation movements of the 1960s, is Emerita Professor of Sociology at Rider University (NJ). Her book Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory first appeared in 1983. Thirty years later, in 2013, Brill published a new edition, and Haymarket Books issued it in paperback. The original book was translated into Turkish (1990) and Chinese (2009); Turkish and German translations of the new edition are currently underway. In an earlier career as an art historian, Vogel taught at Brown University and MIT, published The Column of Antoninus Pius (Harvard University Press, 1973), and many articles in the field. She also participated in the early development of feminist scholarship and teaching in both art history and women’s history. She is currently writing a memoir.