Marx on Gender and the Family

Heather A. Brown, Ph.D. (2009), Purdue University, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Westfield State University. Her research interests are in modern and contemporary political thought especially involving the intersections of gender, race and class.

• Acknowledgements1. IntroductionReevaluating and developing Marx for feminist theory todayOverview of the book2. The Early Writings on Gender and the FamilyThe 1844 ManuscriptsLabour and alienationGender in the 1844 ManuscriptsWomen’s alienation in capitalist societyModes of production and the course of historyAlienation, bourgeois morality and suicideRevisiting the nature/culture and man/woman dualismsConclusion3. Political Economy, Gender, and the ‘Transformation’ of the FamilyEngels’s ‘Principles of Communism’ in relation to gender and the familyThe Communist ManifestoNature and society in CapitalThe political economy of Capital, Volume IGender and the family in CapitalConclusion4. Marx’s Journalism and Political ActivitiesThe Preston strikes and women’s labourThe Bulwer-Lytton scandalWomen and the First InternationalMarx and the KugelmannsWomen and the Paris CommuneAfter the CommuneConclusion5. Patriarchy, Women’s Oppression and Resistance: Comparing Marx and Engels on Gender and the Family in Precapitalist SocietiesMarx’s notebooks and the history of The Origin of the FamilySeparating Marx from EngelsMarx’s notebooks in historical contextMorgan’s Ancient SocietyMarx’s notes on MorganEngels’s Origin of the Family, Private Property and the StateEngels’s uncritical acceptance of Morgan and Bachofen on women’s position in clan-societiesComparing Marx and Engels on gender6. The Family, the State and Property-Rights: The Dialectics of Gender and the Family in Precapitalist SocietiesMaine’s Lectures on the Early History of InstitutionsMarx’s notes on MaineMarx’s notebooks on Ludwig Lange’s Römische AlterthümerConclusion7. ConclusionEvaluating Marx’s work on gender and the family for todayReferencesIndex

"This short, comprehensive handbook will no doubt provide the basis for a new wave of feminist engagement with Marxism and is a clarion call for all those who regard themselves as Marxists to re-evaluate their ideological conceptions. Heather Brown allows us all to read Marx with new eyes." – Barry Healy, in: Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal's vision"[T]he importance of this work goes beyond merely filling an unusual academic gap but is symbolic of a dual turn, in feminist theory of a return to the possibilities of Marx, and in socialist theory of the need to struggle against all forms of oppression, including gender." – Jenny Morrison, in: Communiqué, 13 December 2012 [published by the International Socialist Group]