Sheila Rowbotham
Women are oppressed economically and culturally.
Capitalism and sexism are closely linked.
In Capitalism – women are forced to sell their labour to survive and use their labour to support their family under the capitalist system.
The family – is not just an instrument for disciplining and subjecting women to capitalism but a place where men took refuge from alienation under a capitalist economy.
Sheila Rowbotham is a writer, an historian, an activist, and socialist feminist. In 1970 she participated in the first British Women’s Liberation Conference at Ruskin College Oxford, and two years later she published Women, Resistance, and Revolution, an analysis of women’s participation in revolutionary movements. After addressing the first British Women’s Liberation Conference at Ruskin College, Oxford in 1970, Rowbotham went on to encourage night cleaners to unionise, to campaign for nurseries and abortion rights. She played an influential role in discussions of socialist feminist ideas and her books and journalism attracted an international readership.
Rowbotham argued that women’s oppression was a result of both economic and cultural forces, so a dual response examining both the public and private spheres was required to work towards liberation. Rowbotham is most closely associated with socialist feminism, which combines a Marxist analysis with feminism. Rowbotham argues that capitalism systematically oppresses both the working class and women. Female members of the proletariat thereby face a ‘double whammy’ as they are forced to sell their labour to survive and are forced to use their labour to support their husband and children. Within a capitalist system, the family unit serves as an instrument of control over women to facilitate the production and reproduction of men’s labour. She also notes that the origins of sexism predate capitalism, and that the institution of marriage closely resembles a feudalist structure. The link between capitalism and sexism is so intimate that the only way to destroy them is a fundamental change in the cultural conditioning of humanity in relation to issues such as child-rearing and the world of work.
Rowbotham presented her analysis of contemporary social conditions from a Marxist- feminist perspective. She argued that origins of sexism predate capitalism, and that the institution of marriage closely resembled feudalism. She suggested that wives were the equivalent of feudal serfs, contracted to serve their husbands.
Sheila Rowbotham: ‘The revolutionary woman knows the world she seeks to overthrow is precisely one in which love between equal human beings is well nigh impossible.’
• She argued that achieving women’s liberation required a ‘revolution within the revolution’. She maintained that capitalism and sexism are so closely linked that the only way to destroy both was a radical change in the ‘cultural conditioning’ of humanity regarding child-rearing, homes, laws and the workplace.
• Rowbotham argued that capitalism oppressed not only the proletariat, but also women.
Women are thus doubly oppressed as they are forced to sell their labour to survive, but also forced to use their labour to support their husbands and children.
• Rowbotham maintained that the domestic work done by women allowed the reproduction of men’s labour. However, she claimed that the family was not just an instrument for disciplining and subjecting women to capitalism, but was a place where men took refuge from alienation under capitalism.
A major influence on Sheila Rowbotham is the Marxist historians E.P. Thompson and Dorothy Thompson, and has been involved in various left-wing organisations throughout her life. Rowbotham claims that the dualist perspective of socialist feminism is the most appropriate means towards an understanding of structural inequality. Having said this, Rowbotham is critical of orthodox Marxist history for its neglect of issues such as family history, the role of housewives, sexuality and maternity – all of which tend to downplay the political importance of women within society. To resolve this, she advocates a theory of history that accords equal importance to both sexes in its understanding of historical development.
Rowbotham rejects the liberal feminist argument that the women’s movement is best served via a constructive engagement with the conventional political process. According to Rowbotham, only revolutionary socialist movements have secured social gains for women.
She also rejects the radical feminist view that men have no role to play within the quest for female emancipation. Women and men should stand together against the oppression caused by capitalism, a mindset that places her firmly within the second-wave of feminism.
Finally, she argues that women’s liberation requires a “revolution within a revolution” because sexism is just as entrenched within left-wing men as it is amongst men on the right of the political spectrum. For instance, she notes that once a revolution is over women are often relegated to a traditional role of caregiver and housewife.