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    R. W. Connell - Gender and Power ch2 Historical Roots of Contemporary Theory

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    2 Historical Roots of Contemporary Theory ‘There is no widely accepted famework for understanding the facts set out in chapter I. There are several confcing ways of looking At them. The aim of the next three chapters is to come 10 geips with these approaches and derive from them a systematic basis for understanding gender The fist step is to ask where they eame from and how they ssined their present shape. The outline inthis chapter i fr from being a complete history of ideas, That would be a massive Undertaking in its own right. Yet we need some kind of historical Framework, on the principle that social theory never occurs in a wacuum, Te must alWays be understood, and evaluated, as itself practice with a context, Secular Morality Social-sieniic theories of gender are a Western invention, a8 far se I know, and debaitely a modern one, Other civilizations have had dheir own ways of dealing with human sexuality and the felatons between the sexes, As Indian eroticism and Chinese family codes illustrate, these can be as sophisticated and elaborate as snvthing the West has created, But they are diferent kinds of ‘tural Tormation 'Nor was this perpective part of European culture fom the start Sex and gender in the writings of medieval and Reformation intellectuals were, by and large, ems in a debate about the moral relationships among men, women and God, Such a framework Py ‘Thariing Gender was not neces 4 conicting one. t ould recognize the Crmplecis of pausion and ress then wih great ube, Wines the theme of fasted love fom the romance of Tratan ad Tnsde; through Dantes story of Paso and Francesc, to Sake spears Rom end Jui. Vel she welrpring of these sos was Rich more often a clemma of confleing obligations than a urs about tote. Stati the dacsson et sex by theo itgiann ad pnophrs was intended 1 ay down what People tight wo do, rather than coer why they di vomerhing che "fe tat major change inthis amework lowed the eoreion of the bei thst Codd down 3 path for women and men {iow. Among inlets of te Elightenmene we ed the sme rt now celine. There i debate bout the mir jusioton of prevling geudererangemens) and {epeialyn the newly invented ea Srm of the novel drama Sue the ler of pope who Bethe ra, The amework a = fecaar lan, ith Soke nthe place ormerycecpied by ‘God coud admit afar range of pions, amon them cay feminism and Woes The sock ofthe French Revolution punt hr debate udder in rales. fn both France td England ese satements of the “ight of women were pubishe in 1791-2, hard onthe hel of the igh of ma The {Extest known o Englsvapeakng ener, Mary Wollstonecraft ination Right of Ha, lad hea stron the distortion af women's meal character by the opresvecondons under Stich women feed The same histories! moment saw the biter ‘ative oeonventont sexual morality by te Marquis de Sade sn erie, eho went ni the monuonentl lit to explore the ibertne rexaity that became pole when divine law wa sally replaced by human wl ora gol while dese rerained the high-water marks of sexual radial. ‘The reaction agtnst the reach Revoison as Icghmain sexal ss wel as an rms, Most ninecetvcery inteleewale were horle to Wolstonecraft nd Sade they knew of therm tl Bt the seclriaation othe moral argument about fender did wick Inthe high ee fibers took the or oF osteo equal sigh sin or ctsenahp. When the dst Fults! ablation women on signa sae banat {he Seno Falls concenion nthe United Sts in 1848, enered om this goctrine, Within the Hoes) and wi ffamework ic became increasingly fiat tse ay objection to Histrcal Rows of Contemporey Theory 2 ‘women’s cizenship, When John Stuart Mil erate in The Subjection {of Womes, “Under whatever conditions, and within whatever lit ‘men are admitted to the aulfeage, there 8 nota. shadow of justification fr not admitting women under the same’, the phrasing ‘marked a decisive shift in the terms of argument” The logical presumption was now Jor equality. By the ten of the centary in Some colonies of settlement on che fringes of the capitalist world (Wyoming, Utah, New Zealand, ‘Colorado, South Australia, aho), white women did have equal voting rights, and the stroggle for the sulfage in countries ofthe industrial centre was well under sn 0 to deny that religious sworatom continued Tels sing Tat that ninscenth-centary Norh American feminism only became a mass movement when tial in with religion, expecially i the fom of tye Women's Christan Temperance Union. Wis equally striking Wow the reaction agtine feminism and ga) Hbeetion tn the Und States 1970s was closely tet andamentatist Protestants ‘The Mstory of ideas about gender eff from being scesson cf neatly deed stages. However radical 3 new’ developrnen, Cav frameworks ae carted frwatd with "Yet the Ealightenment dd ce baie resvactring of the field of argument and by the end of she nineteenth century a second ‘eanicuring was underway, The dcrine of equal igh felled 2 feist mobilization in Etrope and in North America and other Colonie of setement. By the 1820s women in these counties had Searched out attacked and often broken the worst of thei formal legal disables, moat notably in stage, property ownership Snd acces to nfuation, At he same time ihe concep of equal Tights leo diferent kind of question I the subordination of teomen was not natural or ast, How had it come about? low was itsusained? These are no longer question of ethics tempi questions = and inthe framework of secular moral, empiri {Iuestons about ‘society The logical consequence ofthe doctrine ‘eight, then, was a sal science of gender Tmone sense his had been cident fom the art, Wollstonecraft spent much of her time dicansing how women’s ioral charetet Was formed. She atsibuted women's character to thr education, in the broad sense, and argued for rlorming bh. Tn the same ‘in carly soca Ike Robert Owen noted how womess and men’s characters were disorted by oppressive conditions and % Thorizing Gener Aeivced a need for educational aswell as economic reform. A thread of sex ealtarianinm ran though te Utopian socialist snovement ofthe early nineteenth century. 1 became pa ofthe Ataineam soca adam tough the writings OF AURUSt ebel and Fritch Engen Engels thie current met the speculative history of Kinship being constructed by theorists lke Morgan (Aviat Sep) and Bacholen (Mth Ri) Engels’. {aun Origin afte Foy, Pete Property and he Ste ete On cthnography that was soo superseded and sx historiography was ‘hace when twas writen (te chapter? below) Butt remained important because ie erystaliznd once and forall the ea of Tetonsips Between men and women at 4 social system with 2 detnie historical uajecory. ‘The argument dramatized the diferences between gender relations in the remote pas, known History and inthe hoped-for future. Engels ed the trajectory ender othe dynam of cass, bu he tac ea dinar depend Ss tne "What Engce al tok for granted, ag did all the reformers of that generation, was che tantalnet ofthe elgris of “women” nd neny and indeed the conventional atiuter ef women and tmen, Radical doctrines of equal rights could esi coe with Fiiy conventional views about Arve womanhood, about the proper work of women and men and about ther betersexta Sty Women's frag campaigner tthe ar ofthe entry toute argued thatthe pulic fal needed the moval up omer vies and nurturance tha were the natural atsiutes cf women, Along ths track was easy foe upper-case Eminism to merge lato charity or maral surveillance ofthe poot, inthe Hoderprten tovemcnt and campaigns fr ifant bea ae Tmotberrah cones, exgenis, domeste seen: taching and the The Science and Radicalism ‘These assumptions of naturalness were nevertheless challenged fiom several directions, One was evolutionary Uilogy, Charles Darwin's Dacnt of Mon in 1874 oflered deuiled account of “serual selection’ as a mechanism of evolution alongside the natural selection’ emphasized in the Origin of Specs. In his unemphatic style Darwin took the isue of sex out of the hands of theologians Histrical Rots of Contemporary Thesry 2 and moralists and madeita question of observation and comparison af ihe behaviour of illzen specie, "More, blogs beetne interes in why aex existed at ll and gradualydevcoped an account of the-cvolutonary advantages giver’ by seal fepreducion. ‘Though one spina om Darwin has been the naked ape’ aim that-mens supremacy ‘ver women i an evolutionary law, inthe ong ter the ect has bec unsettling fo patarey. Merely by orig explanations of sexual behaviour tvolutionay biology entrenched the ea that these patterns Were it wed of explanation, that they were somehow protlemate ‘The sientie impact on the field of argument deepened with the advent of doctor interested in sexuality and gender andthe creation os scm-nedieal speciality which ser ae be called ‘Feclogy. Medial nd medicolegal case bistores provided the fest base for an explora ofthe forme of human sexuality as 3 Tatu phenomencn, ‘The fet monuivent ais work, wan KraicEbing's Pycloathia Seal (est edition 1896, numerous expanded edions Inter), which eatalogued ith homed faci ‘ton the many forms of ‘degeneracy from tranestiy and Ketone angst‘ iing te ee anthopology efsexal variation was developed much morc loving by Halk Eli whose Smal Issn he fist vel of Sale in th Petty of Se to be published, appeared in 1697, But the ental igre in this movement of thought vas undoubtedly Sigmund Freud Particularly in ‘Tree Essays onthe Theory of Sexuality’, Frev’s arguments wrecked the notion of natural fed characters for the {wo sexes His emphasis on ‘isexulty in human emotions, and his insistence on the importance of conict within emotional smadeit dato see any patern of seal character a completely sete. Mor, in his analyses of the “Oedipus comple’ he showed how" patterns ‘of emotion in adulthood could ‘be. gresped as ‘esnluions of the confit of development, and. how dierent hl sation old iss sc Fog every apc oF Freud's importance in the history of eas wa not x0 mich in poping the theme sich» Gn any os tere alo doing, t'was in providing « method of reearch prychoanalyss ill ”which generated masses of ew information about emotional lie nd human development, nd ed to oe ‘om the fife io 35 the unit af analyse racer than the specie, % Thing Gender the boy or the syndrome, ‘The paycheanalytic fe history forced attention to the detail of relationships, the configurations. of miley in shore 10 the social contexts of emotional growth Paychonnalyi thos produced detailed and sophiscsted accounts femininity and mascliniy as psychological! forms constructed ty social processes, ronal thir war aot Fre intention — be ‘lung to the hope of bologial explanations of paychology ~ but the logic of his methods In ncetably towards the socal “The concept of Bseuality was ane of Fred's devices or understanding homosexial traction. This was a sanding problem for sciounts of gender which based everything on biology ot on {Be attraction opposites. And ic wat problem? whose salience vras increasing st the late nineteenth century sharpened the socal {einition of homesexials’ asa group apart. This was pariy by ‘ew forms ofeiminalization (one of whose Hirt vrs was Ost Wild), partly by medical deinitins of homosexual behaviour a pathology and pany by the paliical and cultural response of Romorenal people themselves, Authors sich a Karl Uiichs the Bean 167, and sore famously Magous Hirschfeld fom 189s on, bad one foot in scent sexology and the other in the movernet to Ubealze soil attudes and laws. Hirschfeld’: Scientife Humanitarian Committee expresed the blend nicely. “Thelmmediate outcome was natraini theory of hese, the idea of hind sex. ‘This ran counter tothe dieeson Freud twas tang, and a0 for abit supponed a philogeal basis Tor Tomosexlprafrene, can nov be regarded as fasiied. Tt was 2 poltiealy defensive sea, a reply to denunciations of homosexual as moral degenerates, Vern the conte of the early twentieth Eentary i had free as the only explanation of the stability of Tomosesual desire over a lixpan. In this senses aed to the joes questioning the taken-lrgrantedney ofthe dichotomous Sox entegorin Freud lacked, notoriously, theory of sox) structure. If the conventional family were taken a8 % given, both bis anaiyis of prvchosorual development and his medical treatments, cont Bese dese othe paral tun un hy sy mons alowers especialy after the emigration of paychoanaly Ss'e'North Americ hn ie 1990, Freud bimslf aya Kind of Heraian but nt pial radical ~and it was mostly among radicals tat the conensonal fay, and especialy division of Inout, came into question Historical Ross of Contemporary Theory 2» The issues raised by the Utopian enlones in the early part of the century, and by socialist theorists of the mid-century, gained ‘xara force in the context of the "ew unionist” ofthe 1880s and 1880s, the unionization of unskilled workers. Attempts to form unions of working women ran into obstacles chat were not met When unionizing men. Pardly this had to do with direct resistance from men: unions controlled by men often would not accept women members. It also had toda with the specifi kinds of pad Wwork that women were usually employed to doin domestic service and food and clothing industries, and with the demands placed ‘on them for work in their ow ames by husbands and! other relatives, ‘Women in the sodaist movement, for example Clara Zetkin, argued that sxcialist ideas and practices must be rethought to deal With the oppresion of working-class women, ‘They assumed that the sexual division of labour could be changed and. began ‘organizing to do i. In the frst decade ofthe twentieth century Strong women’s movements developed in the socialist parties it Germany, the United States and elsewhere. Under their pressure, working-class organizations cautiously beyan exploring covoperat. ive childcare, public laundries, communal living arrangements and communitj-controlled education as practical forms of the Socialization of childcare and houtework. For a short while his became the policy ofthe revolutionary government iz the Soviet Union, urged on by Alexandra Kolonta {e didnot last. With Stalinism in the Soviet Union and the feeezing of Westem socialism after the 1920s, these policies were completely marginalized. (Ry 1987 George Orwell could include “Teminists” with sandal-wearers, nudists and vegetarians in list of unwanted cranks haunting socialist conferences) Socialist feminism Aad, nevertheless, made a theoretical breakthrough. It hha placed what we now call the ‘sexual division of labour" on the agenda for analysis and explanation, a8 Grmly ty the question of sexuality had been placed there by Darwin and the sexologist. Sex Roles and Syntheses ‘The ebbing of the radical tide in the 1920s drained. practical urgency fiom these debates about gender. In the nent generation the main developments were academic. ‘The “worn question it 30 Thariing Gender politics had already produced a response from the new sienes Erpvehology and sotloy. One ine af research asked what were the poychological diferenees between women and men and how they were cased. Stating in the United States about the turn of the century, sex dieence research gradually accumulated in igs quart, though highly variable quay. Tn the 1930s hi tradtom intesected with the new technology of standardized tute and personality test in asemps to messare masculinity feminnisy ety a3 paytologiel tat Paper-and- pel sales ti mascliity and femininity (MIF) were devised and soon pot {© work diagnosing gender deviance. ‘Genderscling nas on the face of it neutral as to the sources othe characteristics being sale’ Academie social scence was ‘Tadressing that question on ctr terms. Jase Taft developed the idea of women’ elare marginalzaton, an approach nouble because I paced power and excision at the enue ofa social tayss of gender. The main ine of academic thought, however illowed another path with the propagation in the 1980 of he Concept of social tole’ The notion of scaly provided serps fr indenlal Behaviour, Sst lemed and then enacted, was easily Spplied to gender. "hy the 1940 the terme ‘ex ole’, “male roe and Temale role ‘were in se, By the end of hat decade American sociologists such B"Mins Komarovaby and Tslott Parsons bad spelt out a functional theory of sex voles and the cultural comraditons surrounding them. These ideas converged with the £rowing Industries of counseling, marniage guidance, prychotherapy and Wrllre case work, The concept of a normative "ex role? and Xarious pattern of ‘deviance’ rom it eeamne enormously inlaen- Til providing x pracval warrant for nterventon to staighten out {evians, and theoeial jasteation forthe helping proesion ‘hole Sex role has remained the central category of cal thought about gender ever since withthe aexcdilerence erature radualyalipping under the ole’ rubric as wel Tn the meantine peychoanalysis had stirred anthropology in new ditecions Froud and his lower Gesa Roheimt argued that the Oedipus complex was univers, sme form of appearing tery cultures Ia the 1920s and 19305 writers lke Bronslaw Malinowski in Sox and Rosin in Savage Sacty ane Margatet, Mead in Se end Temperament Ther Price Seite dew 00 their own fieldwork to argue general case for a connection Histrial Rots of Contemporary Tory 3 ‘between social structure and the emotional dynamic of sexual ‘Malinowski, truer to Freud, centred his argument on the functional necessity of repression and the elaboration of Kinship customs as ineans to that end, Mead was more interested in the emotional Colouring of a whole culture, and her approach was formative in the ‘cullute-and-personalty” school of American anthropology Perhaps the most important effec of their work was simply to document the range of ways in which different cultures dealt with ew and gender. The exotica of life in the Trobriand Islands, ‘Samoa and New Guinea dramatized for Westerners the ides of socal scripting, it was difelt in the face of this to take any fepeet of fender relations for granted. By the midcentury a number of intellectual currents were converging and the stage was set for reflective synthesis. Three theorists published major works, covering remarkably” similar issues, within five years of eachother; one starting ffom field !nthropology, one from theoretical seciology and one from exstnt- ial phenomenology. With them the social analysis of gender took its Contemporary frm. . Mead's Mele and Female, Talcott Parson's essays in Family Sodlization and Interaction Pracss and Simone de Beavvoir's The Sond See had very different sntelleetwal programs and. po ‘That pethaps makes what they had in common more notable. took 2 psychoanalytic view ofthe making of personality. All ried to integrate this (though on diferent terms) with analysis of the division of labour conceived mainly in terms of sex toes or gender roles, Parsons was mest systematic about this, as ‘ole’ had become ‘fundamental term in his general sociology, In all three authors the sense of the social contingency of sexval character and gender relations had gone very deep. Mead's deliberate cross-cultural Contrasts dramatized the point moet, But it was also assumed by: Parsons, who in earl essays had laid emphasis on the ‘modernization ofthe female role in American society, and by de Beauvoir, who attempted a phenomenology of diferent kinds of femininity. Yet all the theorists tied to limit the free play that 4 complete socilogizing of gender would imply. Parsons did this iy appeal to functional imperatives of society, Mead (the most conservative on ths isue) by appeal to some rather illdefined iological regularities in human development and de Beauvoir by the selffother structure of relations between men and women. All three defined gender patterns mainly in terms of relaionships 2 Thariing Gender Within the nucear family, which all took to be, effectively, tiiversl ‘What de Beauvoir saw, and the others did not, was the dimension of power running through these relationships. Mead and Parsons, to rut it in a phrase, synthesized the held of gender around the lea of custom and social stability. De Beauvoir synthesized it sound the subi ame. “Trt tear The former was themoce influential approach, Parsons's analysis of tho family, particulary his distinction between “espressive’ and ‘instrumental roles, aid the basis fora conservative soctology of gender which took is place in the great expansion of American social seience in the 1990» and 1960s. Tes themes were the necessity of the uclear family, the problems of personal adjustment to sex roles and techniques of intervention to Keep the Family in good repair. With “amily” and ‘ex tole” conflated, the actual focus of most of the resulting research was women a wives fnd-mothers (the ‘lemale ole). Sexaifrence and gender scaling studies continued and were generally taken to confirm the role paradigm. Despite Parsons's prestige, the area remained rather 0 Scademic backwater during. these decades, Tt produced. some notable pices of field research, such as Komarovay's Blue-Collar ‘Marge and. Young and Wilmot’ Family and Kivhip ie East “Londo While these studies had considerable influence in social ‘work and sometimes on social policy, they had Ute impact on focal theory oF the intellectual woeld of social science in general, Teas not until the arrival ofthe new feminism at the end of the 1960s that a wider interest in gender was kindled, and then it was Simone de Beauvoirs perspective that became cent Feminism and Gay Liberation In the conte of thin itor, the research and the theoretic oak inspired by feminiom and gay Hberation in the 1970s was Tova novel at any aces belted A numberof cancers vere already widely debted he nature of leisy, se power ‘atone between women and men, the sociation of chien, the dynaiir of dese The dora ofthe argument, we may #4 faa been mapped ou, Yet it would be eqully wrong wa ac weet ware of tra 6 siny erty Gahan or Tellcovering an etcral mini, The bioty sketched sbove bas Mistrial Rots of Contemporary Theory 3 seen several transformations wits a fed of debate, and this is Ubsically what happened around 1970, There was a reconfiguration ofa wide intellectual field around the themes of power and Jnequalty. Its impulse was a reconnection between theory, which bhad become largely academic, and radical polities, The existence and strategic problems of sexual liberation movements defined the fentral isues for a new generation of theorists. The theory of gender thus became, to a degree it rarely had before, step theory, entering on hove, and how far the social relations of| sender could be transformed. Even if most ofthe issues were long: ‘xtablished, chey were now being questioned with an intensity and depth that made the analysis of gender the most dicusbing force fon the whole cultural scene, ‘One af the fest effects of minism on academia was simply to increase the volume of sexrole and sexcillerence research, In 1969" sex-role studies accounted. for 05 per cent of articles published in sociology journals; by 1978 they accounted for 10 per cent, around 500 titles a year, Eleanor Maccoby and Carol ‘Jacklin's massive compilation Te Pycholegy of Sex Diffrnces, which Cautiously advanced social-noulding ideas, shows the volume of research being done in the United States in the early 1970s, In 1875 a specialized journal appeared, called Sex Ral. The field subdivided into specialties: socialization (Maceaby's interest; men's roles as distinct from women's (Joseph Peck’ in The Myth of Masainin); androgyny" (popularized by Sandra Bem}; and {herapies concerned with gender adjustment (assertiveness tain- ing’ for women, and for men a kind of masculinity therapy promoted by growth-movement psychologists such as Herb Gold- bargin The Hazards of Being Mal) With the exception peshaps of the androgyny’ literature, there was not much intellectual novelty in this Ineratue (For reasons to be explored in chapter 3). There was however highly significant polite. The sex role approach provided the theoretieal ideas that Lnderpinned iberal feminism, the most influential form of feminism in the United States at least, Betty Frieda in The Feminine Myaique (1963) critieized Parsons and Méad, but her call for women’s ‘mancipation was made from within the same framework. What |s needed for reform, in Friedan’s argument, is change of women's Identity and expectations, In liberal feminism generally, women's disadvantages are attri- buted co stereotyped customary expectations, both held by mien * Theorizing Gener and internalized by women, (Chese stereotypes _are_promoted trough families, schools, mass Einar agencies of ‘socialization’ Tn’ principle the inequalities ean be eliminated by treating down the stereotype: fr instance by giving gis beer taining and’ more varied role models, by inoducng, equa pportinity programs and antidiseriminaton legislation, or by frecmg labour markets "A lage volume of Terature appeared inthis vein, much of i academic but a good deal of focusing on policy. Sex role theory rapidly became the theoretical language of eiist reform within the sate, suchas he influcnal 1075 Aisralan Setols Com mission feport Git, Slo! end Sat andthe 196 OECD report Women and Enplyment tas even discovered that reeing sex role conventions might be good for men. Sch nas the claim of the “men's liberation’ movement in the United States inthe mil 19705 through publicists ike Jack Nicole, ehe author of Mow’ Liberation The more radical wing of the Fninist movement soon moved beyond the concept of tex fos and the statgy of hanging ‘expectations. These ideas were seen toe inadequate because hey fined the sigifeance of power in gener relations. Women's Tieracion aoa las oppressed because men have power ow hal changing the station of women means contesting, and event this power. Analyses ‘hat started from these assumptansjaitaMly Tound much tess acteptance in academia and very ligle‘n the bureaucracy. They [became common in the social movement and drew rom movernent experiences of politiel campaigning and consciousness raising groups Tn its simplest form the power analysis of gender pictured ‘women and men as social blots linked by a direct power relation. ‘This implies as a strategy for change a direct mobilization of women emphasizing their common interest against that of men, There have been varying accounts ofthe relation between the two blocs. Ghvistine Delphys Tie Main Enemy, with French farming households in mindy stressed the economic exploitation of wives by husbands, American theorists fended to bypass economies for paltes, Shulamith Firestone in The Delco Sex saw a collective powerslay by men with the childrasing family as its central {nstitution; sexwal reproduction rather than housework was the ey. Mary ‘Daly in’ Gw/Ealogy pictured global pattiarchy Stained by force, fear and collaboration. Radcseminis analy eNO OT Sodalts + capitalism srl Ra of Coenen Thy 3 ser of rape sch a8 Susan Brownmler'sAgsint Our Wil and of formograpy, such ax Andrea Divorki's Popa: Men Posing Fane have general lowed this mode ‘rather more comple ie f eget rated the power of sven and: the subordinaioy oF wont ae lets OT imperatives tuts he dre reatonahp bea mae more general fhe of this argment state om the ned or sol reproduce tio that the reproduction from, generation to generation of foal stuctres ab well a bodin, hin was the perspective of Jule Mitchell's Pocono end Feniniom,stongy fluenced ty Marast and anthropological siructuralism. It was ako the Drrspective ofa more human paychoanalyssn Dorothy Dinner cms The Mrmeid ond te Maron Dinnersen's argument ‘ksced both the power of men athe agquiscenc of women from women's monopAy of eat Siarng ~ half seen at a technical imperative through ost of human history. The ery Tsoi reprouton has eet bees sen is mos sophisticated Statement by Clare Burton in Suodatn Her argument conects ‘hecrometiral sna of womens sbdetinaton to theciigue ‘education an the tery of he ste =the ate tame teed tei radia eminem ene. "Fomor socialist minis the question was ot she reproduction otto ingeeral buf capitan prt. The copoaton cf women wan conneted with eptaliaes drive for prot and cnr need to repre cl presses that Teo sewed Sorkforee andthe oppression of se hose Thee argument too "were linked ath Nese about movement statgye While sectarian Marais argued against a arparate women's movement of any Lind, the majeny of roi feminists worked or an Sivonen womers movement which would conte wth ater tmovements of msntanee to capitalism, especialy the, base Soca feminists directed attention parila to the situation of werking-clase women. A Tong argument sro inthe 19706 thu the cconomic significance ef cir unwaged work a bore 21° bidden subsidy fo capial. The ‘domeste labour debe ‘rentaly ptered ont in amore of Marsa exigei, hgh fot beore a “Wages for Houcwort campaign had given fn iustial dimension vo mist eriques of the family. Another, Ed eventually more fail ine of tack was on the lt abd economics of women's waged work, At Bre sight this appeared as 36 ‘Thaviing Gender an issue of simple discrimination, or an aspect ofthe economist” “dual labour market. But studies like Louise Kapp Hove's Pint Collar Worker gradually revealed the gendered economy asa system of segregation, control, exploitation and socal struggle of awe nspring scope and complesty. In recent research lke Ann Game and Rosemary Pringle’ Gender a Work Cockbura’s Bates And Machin of Dominance, and Carol O'Donnells The Bai of th ‘Bargin, the workplace lx treated at a major site of sexval politics in ts own right. I ean be analysed as an institation, as the point fofjunction between labour markets and the distribution of income, for asthe object of ideology and education. ‘The problem of the general conditions forthe reproduction of capitalism led back to sexuality and the family. Here arguments fznverged from feminism, from the “Freudian Le’ from the "New Left and counterculture of the 1960s and from’ gay liberation ‘Texts like David Cooper's The Death of the Family inverted the conventional sociology of the nuclear family, presenting it as an Suthoritarian institution and the main toot by which a repressive fociety could control sexuality and create conformist populations, Feminists in the carly 1970s widely considered the family to be the main site of women's oppression. Lee Comer’ Wedocted Women ‘was perhaps the sharpest statement of the analysis of martiage, ‘Housework, motherhood and family ideology tha sprang trom this, "The most radical departure in the critique of the family was made by theorists of gay liberation. Sexcrole theory and socialist theory alike presumed that the vast majority of people. were naturally heterosexual; even the early homosexual fights move: iments had accepted that. The new movement did Not Aa atl Slogan declared "Every straight man isa target for gay liberation’ ‘The changed assumption, and the energy of gay polis in the carly 1970s, led to. remarkable surge of theoretical work in feveral countries, The Australian Dennie Altman in Homose Oppressin and Liberation, the Taian Mario Mich in Homaseaatiy ‘nd Libation, and the “gay Left in England and the Urited Statex All developed variants of a critical theory of sexuality. They {enrally saw the family as the factory of heterosexuality, esting Capital's need fer a labour supply and the state's need for suborinatoe. The repression of homosexual desir, while certainly partofe general authoritarianism, thus had quite specifi reasons. eric was necessarily imperfect; and impesfecly repressed desire swat a prime source of the hatred. directed against homosexual Hisrical Rows of Contemporary Thsry 37 people. The liberation of homosexuality was therefore not the Transl eampatga for eqal rights fora perscuted minority. Te wr the cuting ge of 4 more general ideation of human coi PWhether this blend of | ‘Marx, Freud and gay activism could be linked tothe feminist ceique of patriarchy, and if so om what terme, wat 4 major concern of gay theorist hevugh the 1970s One ofthe dices was the analysis of masclny. Ely gay Merton theorists west gayness in men as 4 kit of digest, from mascalaty. This became Tess and less credible withthe Spread of gay machismo” and the lone’ sje inthe homosextal SRbcultare ofthe late 1970s and early 1080s. A strong current in radical eis emphasied the diferences between lesbianism fd men's homosexuality and wanted no tuck with gay men, By the early 1980s gay they like feminist theory, was internally Aside. David Fenbach's The Spa! Pak emphasizes the theory SF paar, the importance of violence ad the patareha Sta, eating homosexual men 2s necessary efleminate. Dennis ‘Alusan's The Homtesaligtn of Amari fuses onthe new sexs communies and the tems on which they can create solidarity Std defend themselves. A thied tendeney, strongly iniseneed by ‘Miche Foveale, questions the very notion of homesexalidenity? asa erm of socal regulation, and sees progress he deconstri th of homeseraliy feel Reaction and Paradox ‘Asradical theories of gender multiplied and divided, and strategies for change became more sophisticated and controversial, a counter- current of reaction aso gained strength. Ts highlights included the rise of the anti-abortion movement in the 1970s, the narrow defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the United Stats, the Squeeze on the welfare state (and therefore services to women) in ‘ost capitalist countries, and the international moral panic created round AIDS in the 1580s ‘The theoretical expression of this movement has been patchy. Is doctrine most often religious dogma, ora decayed Darwinism asserting that_men's and ‘women's conventional roles reflect, Biological ‘necesity and that social variation ‘fom this must the pathological. ‘The more sophisticated forms of iological 38 Trasicng Gender sedietionism, tie Seven Goldberg's The Iniabily of Patriarchy, Appeal to genetic or hormonal diferences between women and zmen ~ in Goldberg's case to explsin an “aggression advantage’ ‘men have over women, which in turn explains ther socal postions ologkalreductioninm has been popular genre inthe age of the ertoral imperative, the naked-age and the rae of Noch Sut was ot an adequate respon 07 FROTET Arguments {hched shelve ofthe socal, Conevatiam to was obliged to flevelop a socal dco. In tents like the American historian Peter Steams Bea Man’ the emphasis son soca adition and city the nuclear family, somewhat idealized, becomes the basis of Gilad and quae way af ile. Compared with this urbane Conservatism & more urgent tore i stuck by the New Right theorist George Ciera Sea! Sic Gilder devclops an analysis af the mother-child hond asthe basic soil linkage, whic leaves tten (an fuer) Hontig Toe. ‘The family as Sr iotuton tsrendal eo prevent the destruction of soil order by unbound men fd society mst provide the comomic and managerial rls for ten, Antti Conelsions are th deuce rms sity soil ’talyss. There san echo of Parson's fnesonalis in thir argument fin the neo-coneratve economists who explain the conventional fly asthe outcome of choices by two ratonal individuals each ent on maiming thir own el "The state of the feld nthe mi-1980s i a paradox. The imple of the lst two decades has produesd a mass of fatal research snd lively theoretical debate, ncuding some theorizing ‘t very high quality indeed. Iti dificult think of any other fel ofthe soctalscences where work a penetrating aod orginal has heen gong on. Yet as the socal throry of gender has blossomed, the diferenes between lines of thought have become more distinct, the conceptual and pola distances greater. Curent thcoris of gender ave net converging, Rather they. present incompatible Accounts ofthe issues, sometines by marking of separate pars of the field. To move ont wonld seem, ix necessary to move back, to reconsider the oundatign of the theories now on oer. This i the business of the next chapter Hisorial Rots of Contenporey Theory 39 Noves The account in this chapter has been put together from 4 gseat many are even so Lam concious of i tentative and preiminary ‘dharscte The main primary sources are the. books and papers mestioned in the text For discussion and Interpretation ae the Ting arly Feminiem and Sexual Radicalism (op, 246). On she origins of Hberal feminism see Marin (1972) and Rosenberg (1982). The vw of Sade ae sexual races! debates jstieadan can be ound in Carter (1979) and Thomas (176). On ‘ly soi feminism see Taylor 1983), Sexology and Peychoanalyss (pp. 27-8). Weeks (185) gives an exent summary of the history of sols Hs Coming Oat (1977) x fondamental 10 the history Fomouseul movements For the bases of my nrpretation of gece alyis se ‘Dr Freud ad the couse a hisry i Connel (1000) or ‘he encounter with the Lead with anhroplogy se Robinson (1972), Socialist Feminim (pp, 26-9). For the general story see Rowhotham (1974). Condioas of "women’s Unie are explored in raeptional dtl fr the ey of Hlamburg by Dose (145) On the strength ofthe momen's movement inturmatte-centur seca ee Dans (1976) on the United State Ts impact inthe Russtar Revolution can be traced in the rings of Kelli (1977. Orwels famous seer i in The Red to Wigan Py, (0960), p. 152 ‘Academie Theorizing (op, 29-32), Klein (1946) i ploneeing and sill fel acount of the Vievopment of academe thinking about gender, Rosnbry (1902) gives tore detail on early ex dlerence sts. The emergence fsx they is sketced sn Carrigan, Comme and Lee (19). Forte sane ‘atement = apart from Parsons ~ sce Komavosky (186, 185). 0 Thesisng Crder ‘Second: Wave’ Feminism and Gay Liberation {pp 22-7). Therese development fail theory sl holy dpa orabl ennings in charting ths story have evn mae by Hartman (0979) and Burn (1985) op Maret feminsm: Maeax (1973) 09 the domes Ituur debate, Eeesen (1900) and Wills (1988) on [Asia ail fis, Wale (80) ae Carrigan (1961) om gy fbertion theory. 3 Current Frameworks “This chapter tests he major femeworks forthe socal ansiis of gender that have emerged from the history fost dicaseed. The focus ison the general logic of diferent kinds of theories rather than on particular applications or particular concept take this rather oral approach ag seems the best way’ 2 {cts grip on the posits fr theoreti! growth, to define both the poten and the inherent nts of existing Fameworks. This teadr to a rather unusual clasiicain of theories Commonly recognised “chool? af thought torn out to contain logically ‘isparate theories. Socialist feminism for instance contains several afte types of theories dieused belo. The concept of ptrarchy’, Stpprosthed i this way, doce net tand for a partular school at aR Te sppears in sevral logically erent forms of theory and takes om diferent meanings according tits context. nee distinctions ae basco what follows) betwen extrinsic anu itsnse accounts of the determinants of sx inequality (B) rthin intrinsic eos, between howe that focus on esto ahd Ghose that focus‘ powers) ‘within power theories, between thoae that se categories a8 prior to pratice and those that sce {Stegorcs x emerging fom practice, Vatart wih xt heoie, tot becnse they re less sophisticated but because they do seem {he least prising forthe general project of theory af gender. Extrinsic Theories: From ‘Class First’ through ‘Social ‘Reproduction’ to ‘Dual Systems" Chapter 2 noted the divergence between feminist theories tht sae direce power relations between men and. women as the main Aleterminant of women's oppression, and those that looked se 2 Thariing Gender sshere.‘The most infuential extrinsic theories (apart fom biological Slvrminisy which wil be dacused chapter 4 and ie oa form af socal theory) have been Marist snabses tat leat the fundamental determinants of women's ppreson in lass elation, the capitan system, othe "elatons of profcton” undersoed in los term ‘The simplest version of this hea i the view that ‘women’s Tiertion depends onthe can stagge beease capitalism ithe root cause of all sal inequaies and clas stugple against ‘Spain therefore pray. In Wonensibetin, Clas gee Si American booklet Grenied i the early 19700; Karen Miles Smarr ew a ho wom’ oppresion sere the ruling clas. Capialas ga higher pros because women Moros get lower mages, exam Gide the working” as ‘Tomer’ eppresion maining the fay which in turn ia Capital, hs simple synthesis of soit and lent ies Proved 100 much fr more ertodox Martins to diet: Retent Eidence& the rousing rexatement ofthe cart Siew by the Satsh Troskyite Tony Chit Clas Stale nd Wenn Lieto, ‘At remarhale Teng (he books ne ofthe longest analyes of ‘modern feminism yet published by a man) Ci args hat these Can be ao compromisé between Marco and fines the later ie a bourgeot decepion of honent working women, Easchaly la views are otal doirine nthe Soviet Union and Chine, Se ofthe few points on which these egies sll agree: In Chey the regine aa led to break women fee fod the extended fatiathal amily by subsuing tne dealoa harmonious nucle Ely, withthe seal division of labour remaining unchallenged ‘The Sve regimes equally complacent about women shouting the soil buen of eildcre and other work inthe home Policy fon sonal polis has been consistently subordinated t the wits Sa ‘urns ofthe class fie fs theory, thee viwa giv Hite o bite co, The priory of lass axuggl ty as Chrnine Depry comments on sia acaroents in Prtnce;*a ponlat, a dogma There issn obvious objeto the sbordinaon of women sarcd long before eaphali, occurs invall Gasser under captain, and his continued in canties that have ceased to be eptalst The fact that women of diferent lacs have diferent intr of gent portance, But it does fot need a dogma ofthe theorebeal ploy of dass to recognise ths Curent Framacorks 8 Nevertheless the seeds of a much more powerfo analysis were present in Miler's remarks about the family. In the middle and later {O05 this was developed by a numberof therist, particulaey in Britain, under the influence of structurale Marxism, "The central idea was that the family, sexuality or gender relations at large were the site of the mprodacion of relations of production’. A particular pattern ofrelations of production (hich fnainly: means lass relations ia industry) is taken in Marxist, theory to define a mode of production” (capitalist, eudal ete) A ‘mode of production provides, soto speak, the backbone of @ whole Historical epoch. ‘These relations of production could not exist without being reproduce, rom day to ay, year to year, generation to generation. This need calls into existence social processes entering on the family, domestic life and the raising of children. Ditferent theornts gave somewhat diferent accounts of these processes, Jaliet Mitchell saw patiarchy-as the sphere of ideology, Inserting people nia Ter of production. Other English theorists traced a whole new set of social relations here, the Telations of repreduction”. There wa ugreement, nevertheless, tat there processes of this sphere was the main determinant of the subordination of women. ‘Secial reproluction theory in his form represented a major advance ver simple aveantiet theories of patarchy aed 4 synthesis of several important lines of thought. Reproduction’ ould be understood as bearing children to fil places in production land servicing the tired worker at the day's end. Here theory could ‘connect with the basic Taets of life documented by working-class ‘women themscves, in autobiographical writings from Margar Llewelyn Davies's Life Ar Ive Hase Kaoun It to Gwen Wesson's Brian's Wife, Jon's Mam. Alternatively “reproduction could be seem as a matter of culture and psychology, of “socialization, making square people to ht square holes in capitalist industry This picked up themes thae were familiar in socialist eriques of the ways education and culture were distorted to ft the needs of ‘apitalism, Whon Andrew Tolson argued a connection between competitive masculinity and the functional requirements of capt jam, the material was new but the form of argument was very familiar t0 socialist ‘Above all, reproduction theory argued a sitmie connection between the subordinatii

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