Marx on the Family and Class Consciousness

Abstract

Contrary to the common interpretation that the woman question is only marginal in Marx's thought, this article aims to show that the liberation of women is an integral part of Marx's theory of socialist revolution. It shows through an extrapolation of Marx's views on the family that sociability, which is indispensable to the formation of working-class consciousness, can be developed only in families founded on sexual equality, not in patriarchal families. Thus, in Marx's theory of revolution, women's emancipation within families is a crucial element, essential to overcoming the difficulties involved in the development of sociability within the context of capitalist society. The article also argues that this Marxian perspective on the relationship between the family and politics has been neglected, largely because of many Marxist feminists' tendency to mistakenly conflate the thought of Marx and Engels on the woman question.