Marxist-Feminist Contributions to Radical Economics

Abstract

In the last twenty years, a new and rich school of economic analysis has developed-Marxist-Feminist thought-as part of what many historians now call the "second wave" of feminism (the flrst was in the mid-and late-nineteenth century). This resurgence of feminism was both the result and cause of a growing breakdown in the traditional sexual division of labor as more and more married women entered into the paid labor force, and as women began to demand entrance into men's jobs (Matthaei 1982). In the early 1970s, grassroots feminist groups sprung up allover the U.S. to study, criticize, and flght to break down gender straightjackets, including the exclusion of women from positions of power. Marxist-feminism developed in the early seventies, with roots in radical feminism and the New Left. Some women came to Marxism and radical economics as a result of their participation in radical feminist study and organizing groups.