Marxism and the woman question in imperial and Weimar Germany

Abstract

This chapter examines the thought of the socialist and working-class women's movement in Imperial and Weimar Germany through the lens of Marxism's relation to the woman question. Because most socialist women were not trained philosophers, though they were often steeped in the Marxist and socialist theory of their time, and many were autodidacts, reconstructing their ideas involves an exercise in intellectual history from below, where labor history meets the history of ideas, social history meets history of philosophy. The chapter begins with a brief account of the history of the proletarian women's movement in German-speaking Europe and then examines the ideas advanced by its participants. While proletarian women often focused on topics characteristic of feminist philosophy, such as suffrage, motherhood, and prostitution, their concerns were not limited to women's issues. The chapter examines socialist and Marxist women's contributions to the theory of the state, revolution, nationalism, colonialism, war, and welfare.