shelia rowbotham

• A socialist feminist who said that under capitalism women had little hope of escaping the patriarchal society. Said that Marxists were too limited in their view of women, as women are also oppressed in home life and in wider culture
• • Capitalism – women are forced to sell their labour to survive and use their labour to support their family under the capitalist system.
  • The family – not just an instrument for disciplining and subjecting women to capitalism, but a place where men took refuge from alienation under a capitalist economy.
• • Though having a Marxist background, she criticised Marxism for its narrow focus on capitalism and class, rather than oppression in domestic life and society.
  • She believed men did not recognise how they oppressed women in practice.
  • She argued how capitalism exploited women, as they must support their husbands and children, they then were also forced to sell their labour to survive.
• • All feminists now would agree with Rowbotham of the important interplay between economic and cultural forces, which have caused inequality between the sexes, though would disagree on whether capitalism is the main cause.