Federici: Fighting for the Same Rights 500 Years On
Silvia Federici, in The Caliban and the Witch, puts forth a compelling argument in which capitalism depends on and enforces sexism. Imposing the separation of the public and private sphere, starting with common land being privatized and resulting with women losing control over their bodies and being legally infantilized, capitalism requires the subjugation of women to succeed. We will first look at the loss of the commons and the resulting loss of economy and agency for women.
Federici argues that women were more dependent on the commons than men were, not only for economy but also their social life. Prior to land being privatized, women worked alongside men tending to land and were able to sustain themselves through their labor. Additionally, the commons were used for women to socialize in a safe space with one another. Once land was privatized, women were relegated to the home, isolated from one another, and had no access to wages. This resulted in chronic poverty and dependence on men for their economic well-being. This is not to say that the privatization of the commons and move to wage earning was without hardship for men. The value of labor was so little it led to devastating poverty, which in turn led to a reduction in population as families that could not feed themselves were no longer having children. To counter the fall in population, women’s bodies were soon regulated, transferring control of women’s bodies from the women themselves to the state and men in general.
The state countered the stress on population size by emphasizing the importance of marriage, family, and reproduction. As a result, women’s bodies were highly regulated. Abortion and birth control were outlawed and demonized and the priority of the fetus took precedence over the life of the mother. In some countries, providing housing for unwed mothers was illegal. Mid-wives, neighbors, and family members were reduced to spies, reporting ‘suspicious’ activity to the government: women entertaining men in the home, walking about by themselves, suspected sexual activity without the goal or procreating. Women were required to register their pregnancies and faced death should an unregistered pregnancy result in death for the infant prior to being baptized. Women were reduced to their role in procreating and lost all sense of agency.
Centuries later, we still find ourselves fighting for the same rights. The advent of capitalism devalued women’s labor, particularly labor performed in the home, and criminalized women’s bodies. Understanding Federici’s argument that capitalism requires on the subjugation of women, we cannot help but wonder if we will ever have fully equal rights under a capitalist system.
