Marxist

• Individual men may benefit from the unpaid domestic labour and childcare mainly done by women
• This reduces his bargaining power in relation to his employer and makes it more likely that he will put up with a low wage rather than risk being sacked by striking
• Emotional support provided by men acts as a safety valve for frustrations produced in the husband by working in a capitalist system
• Housework was seen as the intersection of class and gender-based modes of exploitation
• Capitalism needs to be brought down for patriarchal relations within the family to cease
• Because the husband has to pay for his wife and children, he cannot easily withdraw his labour power even if he is exploited
• Being a father seems to push men into the breadwinner role and women into the caring role


  Women gradually return to work as children get older
• Fran Ansley: ''When wives play their traditional role as takers of shit, they often absorb their husband’s legitimate anger and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression''
• Women do housework and childcare for free


  This benefits capitalism
• Capitalism is the main cause of women being in subordinate housewife and mother roles
• Margaret Benston: ''The amount of unpaid labour performed by women is very large and very profitable to those who own the means of production. To pay women for their work, even at minimum wage scales, would involve a massive redistribution of wealth. At present, the support of the family is a hidden tax on the wage earner – his wage buys the labour power of two people' (Margaret Benston, 1972)'
• Women's unpaid work ultimately benefits the capitalist class as they only have to pay the male breadwinner a wage
• The nuclear family is seen as a valuable stabilising force in capitalist society
• The family is viewed as an authoritarian unit dominated by the husband and adults, teaching passivity and acceptance of hierarchy in capitalist society
• Social changes since the 1970s, such as increased job opportunities for women and the absence of a gender pay gap for younger workers, suggest that Marxist-Feminist analysis may no longer fully apply
• Becoming a young mother leads to more women leaving work, while having the opposite effect on young men
• The traditional nuclear family physically reproduces cheap labor for the ruling class and teaches the ideas required by the capitalist class for their future workers to be passive
• Marxist-Feminism focuses too narrowly on the role of economics in causing patriarchal relations at home, which may not apply to all societies
• The husband's responsibility to pay for his wife and children reduces his bargaining power in relation to his employer
• Research suggests that being a father pushes men into the breadwinner role and women into the caring role
• Ideologies about domestic work and childcare being naturally women's work help maintain the current system
• Capitalism benefits from women being the primary child carers, bringing up the next generation of workers for the capitalist system
• Young women are far more likely than men to leave employment and become the primary child carers
• Becoming a young mother results in more women leaving work, but has the opposite effect on young men
• Women take the career-penalties associated with taking time off work to be the primary carers
• Women working for the public sector or large organizations with over 50 workers were also more likely to return to work full time
• Childless young women are MORE likely to be in employment than childless young men, but this changes drastically when those young women have children
• Being a father


  Pushes men into the breadwinner role and women into the caring role
• Men in work with children aged 1 to 18 have consistent employment rates
• Women gradually return to work as children get older, with 31% of women with a 1-year-old in employment compared to 49% with an 18-year-old