Marxist Feminism and Anticapitalism: Reclaiming Our History, Reanimating Our Politics

Let’s not just “talk” about it: reflections on women’s career development in hospitality

“…On the one hand, hospitality organisations play an important role in supporting employees to achieved work-family balance, which, as Liu et al (2020) demonstrates, can affect female employees' organisational commitment and career advancement, On the other hand, the notion of 'reproduction' should urge us to look into the unequal distribution of domestic tasks between partners (Lyonette and Crompton, 2015). Investigating in reproductive labour is indispensable for making sense of gender inequality in contemporary capitalist societies as suggested by Marxist feminists (Bryson, 2004;Luxton, 2014). Indeed, Federici (2012) maintains that an analysis of housework remains critical for understanding the exploitation of women.…”

“…There are three reasons for turning to Bradley (2013). Firstly, Bradley’s approach follows the Marxist feminist tradition, which continues to be relevant in interrogating gender inequality (Luxton, 2014). Marxist feminists foregrounded the significance of the process of reproduction, suggesting that reproductive labour, including the (unpaid) domestic, procreative and caring activities performed largely by women, is fundamental to capitalist societies (Luxton, 2014).…”

“…Equally, however, it is increasingly noted that women's career advancement in hospitality is often affected by family responsibilities such as housework and caregiving (Boone et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2020). In fact, as recognised by Marxist feminists (Luxton, 2014), the exploitation of women manifests both as limited access to productive labour (e.g. paid employment, and, in the contemporary context, unequal opportunities for progression at workplace) and the burden of reproductive labour (domestic responsibilities).…”

A Response To Meg Luxton’s “Marxist Feminism and Anticapitalism”

“…Luxton proposes using the term more broadly, to refer to analyses and activism based on historical-materialist principles that "[theorize and develop] politics that put women's oppression and liberation, class politics, anti-imperialism, anti-racism and issues of gender identity and sexuality together at the heart of the agenda." 4 Such a definition aptly captures that which many Marxist-feminist theorists have striven and sometimes claimed to achieve, but the tradition's actual achievements are considerably more modest. Even its most compelling theoretical contribution the current of social-reproduction feminism that Luxton helped forge-has, until recently, been relatively silent on the systemic relationship of anything but gender and class.…”

Care Work in Transition: Transnational Circuits of Gender, Migration, and Care

“…Marx and Engels articulated this foundational insight in Volume 1 of Capital (Marx, 1976 [1867]) and The Condition of the Working Class in England (Engels, 1987 [1844]), yet, beyond Marxist and socialist feminists, theorists of capitalism have rarely, if ever, taken this assertion seriously. The theoretical blind spot in Marx and Engels’ writing—which assumes human beings’ inherent “drives for self-preservation and propagation”—is undoubtedly a major cause of this omission (Marx, 1976 [1867]: 718, cited in Cock and Luxton, 2013: 127; also see Luxton, 2014: 153). Yet, there also is a need for more rigorous inquiry into the concrete mechanisms and processes that operate outside the narrow labor-capital relationship and take root in the home, the family, the community, and other institutions in civil society.…”