Marxist feminism and housework: discussing with Heleieth Saffiotti and Zuleika Alambert

Abstract

The relation between the exploitation of women and the emergence of private propriety was one of the most important elements of the reflection that feminist authors with a Marxist perspective developed in the ’70s and the ’80s. These authors related the emergence of capitalism with patriarchy. They thought these two factors were independent on each other (in spite of being related). In this way, women’s liberation would depend on a not merely economic, but also social and cultural revolution. Much of the discussion by these authors, like Zuleika Alambert and Heleieth Saffioti, was based on Engel’s writings. Thus, they discussed the denaturalization of the sexual division of labor; women’s subordination to men; the so-called domestic mode of production; the demand to collectivize the housework and the care of children. In these discussions, the authors articulated the dialectic relations between sex and social class. Based on Zuleika Alambert and Heleieth Saffioti, this articles examines the way in which housework was discussed among them and describes the articulation between the considerations of housework as non-productive – because it does not produce surplus-value – and the discussions about the domestic mode of production.

Key words: marxism, feminism, housework, sexual division of labor.