marxism

• Engels - inheritance of property:

  under capitalism men gained control over women as they wanted to pass on private property in the form of inheritance from one generation to the next and they wanted to be sure that the heirs were their legitimate offspring.
• Marxists also share an interest with Marxist feminists in the role of women in supporting capitalism through their unpaid domestic labour and their position in the world of work as a reserve army of labour.
• Neo-Marxists – argue that social structure is based on the dominance of some groups over others. Conflict is not simply based on class struggle and the tensions between owner and worker or employer and employee; it occurs on a much wider level and among almost all other groups, such as women.
• Castles & Kosack – reserved army of labour:

  • In a capitalist crisis, married women are discharged from employment into the home and function as a reserve pool of labour to be drawn on in boom periods