Socialist feminism in Britain and America

Abstract

In many European countries there seemed by the end of the nineteenth century to be a sharp split between ‘mainstream feminists’ with their demands for equal political and legal rights, and Marxist socialists with their talk of class war and revolution. In both Britain and America, however, there was much more of a continuum, as the social concerns that had long characterised sections of the women’s movement merged with a more radical critique of existing society which led some to socialism as well as feminism. For most, this socialism was based on humanitarian ideals or a pragmatic response to poverty and the conditions of working-class life, and owed little to Marxist ideology. As such, it favoured gradual and piecemeal reform rather than revolution, and it could seem readily compatible with a feminism based on ideas of social justice rather than on an analysis of patriarchy; from this perspective, socialism and feminism could be seen as complementary, promising equality and an end to exploitation for all.