Feminism and The Question of Class - ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI PDF

FEMINISM AND
READ~G~~-----Il:LLQUESILObLQLClAS-s
Alexandra Kollontai
Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) was one of the fore social position. In other words, women can become
most feminist members of the Bolshevik Party in truly free and equal only in a world organized alono
1)
Russia and worked to implement feminist social wel new social and productive lines.
fare ideas in the Communist government under Lenin. [... J
She was, nonetheless, an outspoken critic of what she
called "bourgeois feminism." In this piece, written in The Struggle for Economic
1909, Kollontai argued that class- and gender-based Independence
oppression made the experiences of working-class

women very different from those of middle-class and First of all we must ask ourselves whether a single
wealthy women. In many ways, Kollontai's writings united women's movement is possible in a society,
foreshadow more recent criticisms of the notion of based on class contradictions. The fact that the
"woman" as an identity politics based solely on simi women who take part in the liberation movement
larities among women. do not represent one homogeneous mass is clear to
every unbiased observer.
Leaving it to the bourgeois scholars to absorb them The women's world is divided, just as is the ."orld
selves in discussion of the question of the superior of men, into two camps; the interests and aspirations
ity of one sex over the other, or in the weighing of of one group of women bring it close to the bour
brains and the comparing of the psychological geois class, while the other group has close connec
structure' of men and women, the followers of his tions with the proletariat, and its claims for libera
torical materialism fully accept the natural specifici tion encompass a full solution to the woman
ties of each sex and demand only that each person, question. Thus although both camps follow the gen
whether man or woman, has a real opportunity for eral slogan of the "liberation of women," their aims
the fullest and freest self-determination and the and interests are different. Each of the groups un
widest scope for the development and application of consciously takes its starting point from the interests
all natural inclinations. The followers of historical of its own class, which gives a specific class colouring
materialism reject the existence of a specia} woman to the targets and tasks it sets itself. ...
question separate from the general social question of The proletarian women's final aim does not, of
our day. Specific economic factors were behind the course, prevent them from desiring to improve their
subordination of women; natural qualities have status even within the framework of the current
been a secondary factor in this process. Only the bourgeois system, but the realization of these desires
complete disappearance of these factors, only the evo is constantly hindered by obstacies that derive from
lution of those forces which at some point in the the very nature of capitalism. A woman can possess
past gave rise to the subjection of women, is able in a equal rights and be truly free only in a world of
fundamental way to influence and change th.eir socialized labour, of harmony and justice. The femi
nists are unwilling and incapable of understanding
"feminism and the Question of Class." From "The Social Basis of
this; it seems to them that when equality is formally
the Woman Question," in The Selected Writings of Alexandra accepted by the letter of the law they will be able to
Kollontai, trans. Alix Holt. London: Allison and Busby, 1977: 58-62. win a comfortable place for themselves in the old
198
ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI I Feminism and ,the Question of Class 199
f rld of oppression, enslavement, and bondage, of gain access to science and the higher benefits of cul
O
w s and hardship. And this is true up to a certain ture was not the result of a sudden, maturing need
. . 0 f women 0 f t.h
teaf.n,t For the majority e proi '
etarlat, but stemmed from that same question of "daily
pot" .
ual rights with men would mean only an equal bread."
'; eq .
hare in mequa l'tty, 'b ut I:lor tee
h" h lew, lor t h e
I : " I:
osen The women of the bourgeoisie met, from the very
~ourgeois women, it would indeed open doors to first, with stiff resistance from men. A stubborn
neW and unprecedented rights and privileges that battle was waged between the professional men,
until now have been enjoyed by men of the bour attached to their "cosy little jobs," and the women
aeois class alone. But each new concession won by who were novices in the matter of earning their daily
ilie bourgeois woman would give her yet another bread. This struggle gave rise to "feminism"-the
weapon for the exploitation of her younger sister attempt of bourgeois women to stand together
and would go on increasing the division between the and pit their common strength against the enemy,
women of the two opposite social camps. Their against men. As they entered the labour arena,
interests would be more sharply in conflict, their these women proudly referred to themselves as the
aspirations more obviously in contradiction.... "vanguard of the women's movement." They forgot
The woman question assumed importance for that in this matter of winning economic indepen
women of the bourgeois classes approximately in dence they were, as in other fields, traveling in the
the middle of the nineteenth century-a consider footsteps of their younger sisters and reaping the
able time after the proletarian women had arrived in fruits of the efforts of their blistered hands.
the labour arena. Under the impact of the mon Is it then really possible to talk of the feminists
strous successes of capitalism, the middle classes pioneering the road to women's work, when in every
of the population were hit by waves of need. The eco country hundreds of thousands of proletarian
nomic changes had rendered the financial situation women had flooded the factories and workshops,
of the petty and middle bourgeoisie unstable, and taking over one branch of industry after another,
the bourgeois women were faced with a dilemma of before the bourgeois women's movement was ever
menacing proportions; either accept poverty or born? Only thanks to the fact that the labour of
achieve the right to work. Wives and daughters of women workers had received recognition on the
these social groups began to knock at the doors of world market were the bourgeois women able to
the universities, the art salons, the editorial houses, occupy the independent position in society in which
the offices, flooding to the professions that were the feminists take so much pride.
open to them. The desire of bourgeois women to [ ... J
KEY IERMS
Bolshevism One of the main socialist parties in argument that there is a material basis for the
Russia from 1903-1918, founded by Vladimir process of change through a conscious
Lenin, it was the instigator and organizer of the recognition of class struggle.
Russian October Socialist Revolution in 1917. the woman question The debate over the
historical materialism A philosophical role of women in the modern state.
approach to history associated with Marxism; the

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FEMINISM AND

1909, Kollontai argued that class- and gender-based Independence

oppression made the experiences of working-class

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