Marxism and the Oppression of Women

Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory

Cover of the first edition
Author	Lise Vogel
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Historical Materialism Book Series
Subject	Marxist feminism
Publisher	Rutgers University Press
Publication date	1983
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	231 (1987 edition) 266 (2014 edition)
ISBN	978-1-60846-340-4

Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory (1983; revised edition 2013) is a book by the sociologist Lise Vogel that is considered an important contribution to Marxist Feminism. Vogel surveys Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's comments on the causes of women's oppression, examines how socialist movements in Europe and in the United States have addressed women's oppression, and argues that women's oppression should be understood in terms of women's role in social reproduction and in particular in reproducing labor power.

Vogel writes: "This book constitutes an argument for the power of Marxism to analyze the issues that face women today in their struggle for liberation. It strongly rejects, however, the assumption made by many socialists that the classical-Marxist tradition bequeaths a more or less complete analysis of the problem of women's oppression."^[1]

The book received mixed reviews at the time of publication in 1983 but is now considered a founding text of Social Reproduction Theory.^[2]