Mary Fonow's View On The Role Of Women In The Society

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Socialist feminists are feminists who believe that capitalism is a driving force of sexism in America and must be eradicated or altered in order to achieve social equality. For example, in her essay “Nothing Distant About It” Alice Echols quotes Ellen Willis who argued that “capitalism succeeded in exploiting women as cheap labor and consumers ‘primarily by taking advantage of women’s subordinate position in the family and our historical domination by man’” (Echols, 34). The women of the Combahee River Collective also claim the identity of socialist feminists, believing that “the work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses” (Combahee, 213). According to these women, capitalism is an …show more content…

Mary Fonow explores the role of women in the economy in her essay “Work, Poverty, and Economic Policy.” From the dawn of economics companies have benefited from the uncompensated work of women’s reproductive labors at home. Women’s labor in the home including cooking, cleaning, sewing, and childcare not only maintain the health and well-being of current male workers, but also provide future workers as well. Some women also participate in trade and sustenance farming in order to feed their families. However, none of this work is recognized by the government because no goods are produced and no services are offered to the public; therefor this work goes uncompensated. As Fonow points out “this arrangement made women dependent on marriage for their economic survival and explains in part why women as independent wage earners have such a difficult time earning a living wage” (Fonow, 222). Society and politics not only decide what is considered work in the country, but also decide what kind of jobs are made available and to whom, and many social stereotypes decide how work is

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