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Mariage et divorces entre marxisme et féminisme

Cinzia Arruzza, membre de l'IIRE et professeur assistant à la New School for Social Research de New York, a écrit un court essai sur les relations pratiques et théoriques entre les marxistes et le mouvement féministe du 19e siècle à nos jours. Intitulé Le relazioni pericolose, Matrimoni e divorzi tra marxismo e femminismo (Des relations dangereuses : Mariages et divorces entre marxisme et féminisme), ce livre a déjà été traduit en espagnol et en portugais, des traduction en allemand et turc sont en cours, et l'édition en anglais par l'IIRE est prévue pour 2011.


As Arruzza explains in her introduction “This small book aims to be a short and accessible introduction to the question of the relationship between the women’s movement and the social movement, and to the relationship between gender and class. The first two chapters rapidly reconstitute some of the historical experiences that have signified an important moment in both the process of women’s self-organisation and emancipation, and the convergences and conflicts with the workers’ movement during this process. The last two chapters give a brief panorama of the theoretical debates concerning the relationship between sexual and gender oppression and exploitation, aiming to bring out the problem that arise from the different conceptions proposed and that still remain unresolved today.”

She explains “this is not an impartial reconstruction...it is written on the basis of certain convictions and demands”. These are first that “it is urgent to think theoretically about the relationship between gender and exploitation, and above all the way in which capitalism has integrated and profoundly modified patriarchal structures” because this is “absolutely necessary for a Marxism that wants to understand the transformations and crisis in progress, in which globalisation is bringing about an increasing feminisation of the labour force, leading to a transformation in the relationship between the sexes.” The second, “closely linked to the first”, is that from this understanding should follow “attempts at organisation and political action which aim to overcome the distance created between the feminist movement and the class struggle”.

It is thus an important addition to writings in this field, emanating from a feminist whose experience, reflected in her writing, is not that of the 1960s and 70s but, in Italy in particular, of the first decade of the 21st century.

Review by IIRE Fellow Penelope Duggan

Last modified on mercredi, 15 mai 2013 13:56