Marxism and Feminism

Abstract

This chapter charts the engagement between Marxism and feminism from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, outlining the major feminist perspectives on Marxism to emerge during this time. In the early part of this period Marxism was central to feminist debates, but it has since become far less prominent. In part its declining significance is attributable to the difficulties of welding feminism to Marxism, but this trend also reflects shifts in feminism — and social theory more generally — away from materialist analysis. However, while Marxist feminism as such is less influential than it once was, there is still a vigorous materialist current within feminism which owes much to Marxist methods of analysis.