Ellie Mae O’Hagan - Feminism without socialism will never cure our unequal society
The chair of the
Institute of Directors, Charlotte Valeur, has used International Women’s Day
to criticise FTSE 350 companies for not making enough effort to
recruit and promote women and minority-ethnic directors. Scrolling through the
list of FTSE 350 companies, one will find brands such as HSBC, which was fined £1.4bn for helping drug cartels launder money
in Mexico; Sports Direct, where workers have been exploited to the extent that one woman gave birth in the toilets; and G4S, a company so
mired in scandal that it has an entire Wikipedia page dedicated solely to
the
amount of controversies it has amassed. If a company behaves
terribly but its director is a woman, is that still feminism?
The reality of women’s
work across the world is not that we’re duking it out to see who can make
partner first: it’s exploitation, low pay and precariousness. Sexism is bad
everywhere, including in boardrooms, but feminism must exist to improve the
lives of the majority of women, or it is worth nothing. Valeur may get her wish
for more female directors in the FTSE 350, but it makes little difference to
the world unless those women use their new power to fundamentally alter the
relations between women and capital.
I thought about this
too during the explosion of the #MeToo movement. When debating the allegations
against men like Harvey Weinstein and Philip Green, there was acknowledgment
that women often tolerate sexual assault and harassment because of the immense
power wielded by the men who mete it out. But there was little discussion
around the obvious economic measures that might make it easier for women to
leave these kinds of workplaces, or take action against their bosses: measures
such as a robust welfare state, stronger trade unions, universal free childcare,
better pay and secure affordable housing.
If this sounds like
socialism, it’s because it is. Only by diminishing the power of the boss class,
and giving female workers more access to collectively owned social goods, can
we ensure that no woman is forced to choose between sexual and economic
exploitation, and poverty. Inessa Armand, the Bolshevik revolutionary who was
responsible for allowing Soviet women to divorce, have abortions, participate
in politics and access childcare knew that only fundamental change to the economic system could make life better for women. “If women’s
liberation is unthinkable without communism, then communism is unthinkable
without women’s liberation,” she argued... read more:
