Second Wave Radical

Feminism
Shulamith Firestone
Radical Feminism
Liberal feminism:
• The key to female liberation lies in equal opportunity to engage in the
public sphere and the removal of all barriers to such engagement

Radical feminism:
• The entire social structure is patriarchal
• Equal access to the public sphere cannot liberate women as the entire
system is rigged against them
Shulamith Firestone (1945-2012)
• Painter, writer, women’s rights activist
• Best known for her 1970 work, The Dialectic of Sex
• Initiates the feminist analysis of technology (cyborg feminism)

“the end goal of feminist revolution must be, … the elimination … of

the sex distinction itself” (Firestone 1970: 11).
The Dialectic of Sex
Historical Materialism (Engels)
• The ultimate explanation of historical change lies in alterations of the
economic structure of society
• All history is the history of class struggle

Firestone: Engels’s primarily economic mode of analysis overlooks the

“sexual substratum of the historical dialectic” and understands sex purely
economically.
“There is a level of reality that does not stem directly from economics”
(Firestone 1970: 5).
The Dialectic of Sex
• All cultural systems are determined by sex dualism
• Sex class is given by biology (reproductive functions)
• This fundamental biological difference is the cause of the first division
of labour and thus at the root of class
• But humanity has now “outgrown” nature and the discriminatory
nature-based class structure is now unnecessary
The Dialectic of Sex
Engels: the elimination of class requires seizure of the means of
production
Firestone: the elimination of sex class requires the seizure of the means
of reproduction

“The end goal of feminist revolution must be, unlike that of the first
feminist movement, not just the elimination of male privilege but of the
sex distinction itself:
Genital difference between human beings would no longer matter
culturally” (Firestone 1970: 11)
Liberation through technology
• Female biological enslavement to a specific role would be eliminated
by artificial reproduction
• Class division would be eliminated by the cybernation of all labour
• Pansexuality would supersede hetero/homo/bi-sexuality
Firestone’s Historical Materialism
Historical Materialism (Engels)
• The ultimate explanation of historical change lies in alterations of the
economic structure of society
• All history is the history of class struggle

Historical Materialism (Firestone)

• The ultimate explanation of historical change lies in alterations in the
dialectic of sex
• All history is the history of sex class struggle
Next time…
• Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time