a Soc tate perspective Fox woman ©)
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Women in this society form a convenientiy flexible pool of cheap |

labor. They are channeled away from skilled occupations. Atomised in
smell shops, offices, restaurants, ete., they have ne job security. In Be
this ceritury they have been shifted back and forth between the labor ‘af
wharket and the home as. the economy required . :
Whether or not they are “working” most women do work at home. |
House work is the only major area of production which has not been ine |
tegrated into industrial captialism. Housewives are still producing use
values for themselves and their families. Their production is not sold
on the market; their work is accorded. no value in terms of the measure

of value in this society -- wages. Economically dependent on their hus- 4
bands, their work resembles that of pre-industrial society more than a
wage=-labor.

The maintenance of half the populetion in this position is very
valuable for capitalism. All the work required to prepare meals, keep
house, mend clothes, and particularly, to secialize young children, is
dene free by women, i.e. it is paid for by ordinary working men. At the -
same time, women do housework for nothing either work at low pay outside
the home, or are part of that pool of unemployed which helps keep down
the wages of all workers, : : |

While women (as cheap labor and as unemployed) are used by the
employers te keep wages down, the division in the working class which :
the subordinate position of women entails, has a negative effect on the © }
consciousness of workers as a whole which helps prevent them from effecte-.
ively dealing with these problems. Women s role as defined by this society |
is to maintain stability and security in the home -=- to leave politics, 2
like ali general problems, to men. Because they accept this definition 3
of themselves, because theynare totally dependent on their husbands, be-
cause they suffer their oppression as individuals rather than as a group,
Women are conservative to the working class as a whole. Their conserva- ‘
tism hoids back the consciousness of men workers (particularly their
husbands) as well.

The organization of women tmxzpkimetizsiy around their own problens
as women and as workers will be an important contribution to the unity of
(the workingclass necessary to change society. The struggle of women for
the right to equal work will expose the pool of unemployment now hidden
in the home, and pose much more sharply. the question of who should benefit
from technological change -- whether automation should serve to increase |
profits at the expense of increasing unemployment and poverty, or to in-
crease the le&&fure time for all working people. The demands of women for _ q
therright to control our own bodies, for the right to be economically in- |
dependent and active outside the home, will have a serious impact on the 4
nuclear family as we know 1t now -= the family which is so important to
the present system in terms of the free women s labor it involves and,
particularily, in its socialization of children to be atomised, individual-
istic and competitive, as the system requires. a

The present subordinate position iz of women is an important pillar
of the profitemetivated society we live in. This does not mean that we
cannot win struggles, that “socialism is the only answer””, But it does
mean that a women s movement can only be effective if we understand that
we are facing very powerful enemies, if we recognize that we cannot win
by reasoning or pleading with the system, but only by confronting it in
independent action involving as mayy women as possiblie,.

The emperjence of the women s organizations which attempt to make
changes in women s position without confronting the system (councils of
women, VOW, ete.) indicates the impossibility of this approach. These. org-
anizations have not only failed to change the situation of women in our
society, they have totally. failed to reach women workers or students «=
potentially the most powerful and easily orgenizable sections of the
female population.

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