Women's Liberation
Fighting for Women's Liberation
By Sandra Bloodworth
An excellent contemporary introduction to women's liberation.
Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State By Frederick Engels
This is one of the earliest attempts to provide a rational, materialist
explanation of women's oppression as a guide to the struggle against it. Despite the
advances in anthropology since Engels' day, the main lines of Engels' argument remain
unchallenged, and this book is still widely quoted, and misquoted, in academe, remaining
the point of departure for most feminist and Marxist accounts of women's oppression.
Excerpts from Woman and Socialism By August Bebel
Bebel's enormously influential book was one of the basic texts of German
socialism, and was many women's introduction to politics in its day. Today it remains a
powerful and useful document.
Class Struggle and Women's Liberation By Tony Cliff
This book is an attempt to tie together in a historical way the various
approaches of the Marxist movement to women's liberation.
Marxism and Women's Liberation By Tess Lee Ack
A valuable survey of the Marxist tradition's theoretical contribution to
women's liberation.
Women and the Struggle for Socialism By Norah Carlin
This is a useful introductory pamphlet on women's liberation.
The Poverty of Patriarchy Theory By Sandra Bloodworth
This article was originally published in the Socialist Review and
is immensely useful. It contrasts feminist and Marxist accounts of women's
oppression and their different strategies in the struggle for women's liberation.
It has a considerable amount of material on the background to the family
and women's oppression in the Australian context.
Rape, Sexual Violence and Capitalism By Sandra Bloodworth
This article was originally published in the
Socialist Review. It looks into feminist
and marxist accounts of sexual violence against women, and different
strategies for combating it.