Materialist feminism

Materialist feminism is a theoretical current of radical feminism that was formed around the French magazine Questions féministes. It is characterized by the use of conceptual tools from Marxism to theorize patriarchy and its abolition.

Materialist feminism understands sex and gender as social constructs that are produced through the reproductive exploitation and sexual subordination of women.[1] Its body of literature includes an analysis of women's work within marriage and in the formal economy, criticism of other streams of feminism, deconstruction of sexuality and advocacy for an autonomous women's movement.

Jennifer Wicke defines materialist feminism as "a feminism that insists on examining the material conditions under which social arrangements, including those of gender hierarchy, develop... materialist feminism avoids seeing this gender hierarchy as the effect of a singular... patriarchy and instead gauges the web of social and psychic relations that make up a material, historical moment".[2] She states that "...materialist feminism argues that material conditions of all sorts play a vital role in the social production of gender and assays the different ways in which women collaborate and participate in these productions".[2]

  1. ^ Delphy, Christine (1993). "Rethinking sex and gender". Women's Studies International Forum. 16 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1016/0277-5395(93)90076-L.
  2. ^ a b Ferguson, Margaret W.; Wicke, Jennifer, eds. (1994). Feminism and postmodernism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-1460-8.

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