assignment 6- Federici by Brittany Thomas
Federici speaks of the degradation of women in relation to the capital system in the country at that time. She wanted to make a point that even though slavery or the exploitation of labor as she calls it play a big part in the formation of the country its not the only thing that has shaped the country. On page 18 she puts in a quote by Ibid saying that it is a known fact that conquest. robbery, enslavement, and murder are the pillars of making this country what it is today. Through out the text we see how the “woman “goes from having the protection of the law and her husband to leading enclosure riots and being imprisoned. She talks about how woman could no longer be employed by the army and could not support themselves properly because they were confined to reproduction labor. What ever work woman got usually did not pay and if they did pay, the pay was no where near the amount that men received. The 19th century created the start of the full time house wife s major sexual division of labor. This reduced the value of a woman greatly and the sole function was to reproduce the population. Here is when we see a major dependence increase on the man from the woman, with having nothing more to do but tend to the husband and the children and the house. This also allowed the government state and employers to regulate woman’s labor by the male wage. The separation of production and reproduction of labor reduced the income of a woman almost one hundred percent in which they were almost completely impoverished and basically poor. If you have no income you become economically dependent on those around you. In this case it was the husband who gave the woman money if he felt like doing so. Woman were being confined both physically in the home always tending to the needs of the house and to the people in the house and not only being deprived to tend to herself, any dream of wanting to become more than what she was socially like her male counter part was so far in the future she may have lost sight of that completely. She as most authors of this time speak of the acclimation of wealth through capitalism but she neglects to mention the black woman (slave woman) which most authors do too. Yes woman (white women) were reduced to reproduction labor, it was more so the slave woman who produced the labor population which was one of the reason slavery was such a successful operation. The white man could purchase a salve and have them reproduce 5- 10 children as opposed to paying for 5- 10 slaves. These are the true reproduction victims. Yes however it is true that having to be reduced to a baby making machine and nothing more is a horrible state to be in whether white or black. The common factor in both cases are the same, men.
