What do Marxist feminists emphasize about women's double exploitation?

What do Marxist feminists emphasize about women's double exploitation?

• A. They emphasize that women are doubly exploited as workers and as women, and that the family helps maintain capitalism.
• B. They argue that gender oppression exists only in the home and not in paid work.
• C. They claim capitalism is strengthened by women's domestic work only at the micro level.
• D. They believe the family has no role in capitalist production.

Answer: (A)

Marxist feminists argue that women's oppression is rooted in capitalism itself, not just in gender norms. They emphasize women’s double exploitation: in paid work, where women are often paid less and face a gendered division of labour, and in unpaid domestic and caring work within the family, which reproduces the workforce and supports capitalist production without a wage. The family thus plays a crucial economic role by absorbing the costs of childbearing and care, socializing the next generation of workers, and maintaining the conditions under which capitalism can thrive. That combination—women being exploited as workers and as carers, with the family sustaining and legitimizing capitalist relations—best captures the Marxist-feminist view. The other statements narrow or misplace the analysis, either exaggerating home-only oppression, restricting capitalism’s influence to micro-level effects, or denying the family’s role in production.

Marxist feminists argue that women's oppression is rooted in capitalism itself, not just in gender norms. They emphasize women’s double exploitation: in paid work, where women are often paid less and face a gendered division of labour, and in unpaid domestic and caring work within the family, which reproduces the workforce and supports capitalist production without a wage. The family thus plays a crucial economic role by absorbing the costs of childbearing and care, socializing the next generation of workers, and maintaining the conditions under which capitalism can thrive. That combination—women being exploited as workers and as carers, with the family sustaining and legitimizing capitalist relations—best captures the Marxist-feminist view. The other statements narrow or misplace the analysis, either exaggerating home-only oppression, restricting capitalism’s influence to micro-level effects, or denying the family’s role in production.