Working Women and Marxism. A debate on opression
“The text we are reissuing is essential reading for those seeking to explore the intersection of class and gender. While struggles have yielded significant gains for women and gender minorities, these advances, within the framework of the capitalist system, can be reversed. […] In other words, processes are not linear; rights are not forever, and as the French feminist Simone de Beauvoir argued decades ago, ‘Never forget that a political, economic, or religious crisis will be enough to bring women’s rights back into question.’
“The authors [Carmen Carrasco and Mercedes Petit] emphasise that to achieve true emancipation for women and gender non-conforming people, the struggle against patriarchy must be united with the struggle against capitalism. In this way, it will be possible to end not only male privilege and domination over other genders but also the multiple forms of exploitation and oppression. To this end, it is essential to advance towards the conquest of governments by workers and the people. There is no possibility of defeating patriarchy while capitalism exists, and therefore, the feminist struggle will always be intertwined with and inseparable from the struggle of the entire working class against capitalist domination and for the triumph of socialism worldwide”.
Mercedes Trimarchi