Marx on gender and the family : a critical study / / by Heather A. Brown.

• Author: Brown, Heather A.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Historical Materialism Book Series 39.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (242 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This, the first book-length study devoted exclusively to Marx’s perspectives on gender and the family, offers a fresh look at this topic in light of twenty-first century concerns. Although Marx’s writings sometimes exhibit sexism, especially through the naturalization of certain female social functions, his work often transcends these. Brown studies those writings on gender, as well as his 1879-1882 notebooks on precapitalist societies and gender, some of them still unpublished in any language. The author argues that although Marx never fully developed these ideas, he gave important indications toward a theory of gender and society. This study attempts to fill a significant gap in the literature on Marx and offer some general insights into the intersectionality of gender and class.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- 1 I ntroduction -- 2 The Early Writings on Gender and the Family -- 3 Political Economy, Gender, and the ‘Transformation’ of the Family -- 4 Marx’s Journalism and Political Activities -- Patriarchy, Women’s Oppression and Resistance: Comparing Marx and Engels on Gender and the Family in Precapitalist Societies -- 6 The Family, the State and Property-Rights: The Dialectics of Gender and the Family in Precapitalist Societies -- 7 Conclusion -- References -- Index.