Feminism and Marxism

Feminism

Feminism is the ideology and constant effort of establishing and maintaining equal political, economic, educational and social rights for women. It also applies for equal opportunities in employment. Feminist theory examines women’s social roles to understand gender equality and thus use the understanding to establish a greater equality between genders. Ethnically specific and multi-culturist forms of feminism are more recent creations as early feminism was middle-class and Caucasian specific. Feminist campaigns have been highly effective in recent times, most recognisably, contraception and abortion now being more accessible to a larger demographic. Other successful campaigns since the dawn of feminism include woman’s suffrage and equal pay for women. Feminism not only adheres to women’s rights; due to its definition being the ideology of gender equality, most Feminists also agree that males should be protected from sexism and discrimination in the same way.

Marxism

Marxism embodies the theories and ideologies of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, most specifically those that concern the Communist Manifesto. Marxism works towards a Communist future, achieved by revolution. Marx was critical of the opposing ideology of Capitalism. In Marxism, the belief is held that the revolution can only work in an industrialised society, where the working class overthrows the ruling class, theoretically abolishing classes and creating absolute equality. Lennin later revised the theory when it became apparent that the lower class could not overthrow the ruling class by adding ‘professional revolutionaries’. This small group would be the fighting force of overthrowing the rulers and fighting for the revolution both before and after a successful revolution. Marxism interprets history by correlating the evolution of society with the evolution of its economic characteristics. This is known as historical materialism. Marxism believes that the human race began at ‘primitive communism’ featuring no forms of ownership in a non-hierarchical society. The second period saw the introduction of slaves, where a social class was formed. Thirdly, more defined classes formed with a small percentage being aristocrats at the top of a forming hierarchy and the remaining, larger percentage being peasants at the bottom. Marxism describes the final stage as a capitalist society; a small group of machine-owners have the resounding majority of wealth, leaving very little for the much larger group of workers. This is where the future period is described, suggesting a communist society with shared ownership of all and equality between those who would earlier be categorized into classes. Revolution was seen as the only solution for a Communist future as the majority of upper, richer classes could never be persuaded to willingly give up their privileges. The publishing of the Communist Manifesto saw small up rises and revolutionary attempts in Capitalist societies, though little was achieved.