5 Assignment 06

The transition from feudalism to capitalism started in the 16th and 17th centuries when land privatization and enclosures began to take place. People were removed from their land against their will and once they were removed they lost their means of production and sustenance.

Before the transition to capitalism women had access to land (commons) and the food they planted. They had control over the land and resources and were able to take care of themselves. They did not necessarily need men to tend to the land and they earned income from the crops the sold. But once the transition to a capitalist society began to take shape “women themselves became the commons, as their work was defined as a natural resource”(pg 97).

The economic and population crisis of the 16th and 17th centuries led to a “bio-power regime” which basically created policies that the state used “to punish any behavior obstructing population growth” (p. 86) which made reproduction and population growth a space where the state exercised control.

Federici argues that control over women’s bodies is linked to this crises. This is where the criminalization of reproduction began. In Europe “severe penalties were introduced in the legal codes to punish women guilty of reproductive crimes”(p87). Repopulization and reproduction of the labor force was what women were reduced to.

The degradation of women and the accumulation of wealth came in the form of state control over reproduction and the construction of women as the non-worker. In constructing the woman as a non worker it relegated them to the home (private sphere) which led to the devaluation of their labor. Women’s work was then viewed as a “communal good anyone could appropriate and use at will”(p.97).

The state controlled women’s reproduction and procreation through strict laws and penalties for using contraception, surveillance of pregnant women by midwives, neighbors and even family members. Women’s was so closely survelled that women were “required to register every pregnancy”(p.88).

Women were viewed as reproductive machines forced to reproduce the labor force. Women’s “wombs became public territory, controlled by men and the state, and procreation was directly placed at the service of capitalist accumulation”(p.89). Women were not only constituted as reproductive laborers without being paid but because they were relegated to the private sphere their labor became invisible while at the same time reproducing the conditions that enabled men to go to work.

Bodies were  viewed as “raw materials, workers and breeders of the state”(p.88). The witch hunts were another way that women were degraded. Women were the ones that resisted the enclosures and physically removed many of them. Women are the ones that stood in protest during meat and food shortages. It was these women that were targeted by the witch hunts because they resisted.

Over time women were not to live alone. They could not be seen in the streets alone and even at some point could not even be seen peering out of a window. The state continued to enact strict laws that  criminalized any activity women took part in. Prostitution was previously an acceptable practice but as the attack on women continued prostitution too became criminalized. .

The family unit (where a women lost most of her power). Women and children were considered the subordinate  class according to the new definition of the family in which the husband was responsible for disciplining and supervising them. Once women married their husbands were generally paid the wages that she  worked  for even though she worked to produce for the market The Feminization of poverty , male as bread winner, patriarchal wage were the instruments and tactics used by men and the government to strip women of social status, economic opportunity to ensure access to sex and the female body but also to continue to reproduce the labor force.

The rights for women to own land or conduct business or  to enter contracts  were all taken away, Women declared “legal imbeciles”

The book Caliban and the Witch written by Silvia Federici draws us to a broad arguable notion of viewing women transitioning in time, from the servitude of kings, nobles and lords to a system based on property for profit. At the same time, Federici, in her chapter “The Accumulation of Labor and Degradation of Women: Constructing ‘Difference’ in the ‘Transition to Capitalism’”, further takes us in viewing the irregularities of physical work buildup demanded during systematical economic shifts. The force requirement and expectation of women’s role during various past time periods, which actions partaken by women were not optional.

Such actions taken by women in past centuries, from feudalism to capitalism, has brought the author to an appeal in viewing the start of capitalism, known as “Primitive accumulation”, to not only being exclusively examined by men (Marx included), but by also allowing women such as the author to input her insightful lens on how historical events portrayed have a concealed form of exploitation. Point out from the differences of women’s role in society and the creation of goods by working: in how women would have to be working as sex slaves and forcing them to produce working descendants; no equal financial earnings to men and tolerating them; becoming the new machine of body to birth children.

Federici by analyzing Marx’s work in regards of the birth and development of capitalism addresses the audience by pointing out Marx’s suggestion of not involving women in the role they played when it comes to the evolution of capitalism. Needless to say, the author places women at the center of it by placing them as a powerful workforce who unfortunately meet their destruction by being labeled as “witches”. The evolution of capitalism, from a starting point to its gradual development, starts becoming barbarous towards women, to the degree that it designs a thralldom necessity with the work force to meet those economic needs of surviving. The hidden agenda of capitalism, creates a divide between men and women.

Capitalism projects itself in Europe and the Americas by slave trade, enslaving farmers, having enclosures, witch hunting women, physical abuses, imprisonments of people who stole goods and to those who falsified their inadequacy to work. Slavery between Europe and the Americas even when if it was meant to be diminished, took a change that benefited private owners. Those included in the slavery were Native Americans and Africans.

As mentioned by the first chapter, capitalism was built on sexism and racism. Feudalism, the financial society before capitalism, was based on raids, murder and control (2004; 19). With capitalism on the rise, people were curious of the new constraints, considering feudalism’s break down. Socioeconomics were changing to where the commoners were possibly able to move up in the economic ladder. However, women and minorities were affected by this decision. For example, Native Americans and Africans were exploited in the 1600s from colonists to profit (2004; 19). This was one of the most visible signs of racism and capitalism. Europeans were able to take another nationality and race, and keep them as slaves. This exploitation of a group of people led to the immense wealth of another group, starting the racial socioeconomics of the United States. How women were exploited was based on the fact that many were degraded in the process of the Industrialization of Western nations.

As people entered the New World, also known as North America, the woman’s role began to change. Beforehand, women were considered somewhat important in feudalism, being in the center of life for multiple roles (2004; 28). With capitalism, this role shifted. Thanks to the policies of privatizing land and owning property, individualism was expected for agriculture. Since this was becoming a greater need, women were expected to help the men when needed, but also not considered as important. Instead, their role was expected to juggle manual labor and housework. However, as this practice continued, women became to become more vocal and then restrained (2004; 30). The brief freedom felt during this period was immediately taken away, and continued to spiral out of control.

Women were constrained to their personal spaces in their households. They were expected to be fully responsible for reproduction and keep the family stable with their work. Thanks to this, women were becoming more financially dependent on males, while unable to make their own wage (2004; 31). This made males able to own property and become successful in the capitalist society. However, women were only as successful as their husbands, and were risking to lose this status at any time, even if their husband passed away. As Industrialization entered lives, women were expected to enter the work force to support industries. However, they were not given the same wage compensation, rights or privileges as their male counterparts (2004; 40). Males were given these economic pillars, improving capitalism at the expense of women.

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.

In The Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici, she begins saying how in Europe land privatization was the beginning of the Capitalism. In the 16th century, for example, European merchant got land from the Canary Islands to convert this land in a sugar plantation giving to Europe an easy way to increase their wealth.

After reading this chapter it is clear that the degradation of women that Federici refers is the treatment women had during this period of transition to a Capitalism. The state felt it was the owners of the women body. Since the beginning, there was a sexual division of labor making women more dependent on men. For example, the state and the people who hired women to do any kind of labor established the wage based on men’s labor. As a result, women’s wage was lower and they still had to dependent on men all the time(Pg. 75). From this unpaid labor or not equal wage the State was able to get more wealth.

As the book mentions the reduction of wage affected not just men who had to work more and get less money but also affected women’s wage in a tremendous way. “In the 14th century, they had received the half pay of a man for the same task; but by the mid-16th century, they were receiving only one-third of the reduced male wage” (pg. 77). This reduction in wages caused several women to choose prostitution as a way to earn money and support their families.  Of course, this was another way to minimize women since prostitution was not considered as a job.

Something that surprised me to read was how women were judged and punished if something happened to their children. During the  16th and 17th century there were forms of surveillance for women during pregnancy and maternity. If for some reason the baby was born dead or died during childbirth the only guilty person was the mother. This was considered  infanticide and  the mother had to receive a punishment as be executed.(Pg.88)

In this chapter by Silvia Federici, we found how women’s bodies were controlled by the State. Women were considered machines that only served to work and as the author mentions “produce children for the state” (Pg.92). Women could not have any important employment and there were forced to get jobs as domestic servants, farmhands, spinners, knitters and even all these occupations were considered not important and not “productive”.

Finally, because there were no jobs prostitution became a form women used to survive and this was also judged with punishments, for example in Madri if a woman was in the prostitution she could receive a hundred lashes (pg.94).

Due Sunday, March 12th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase, make sure to include the proper citation.

In The Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici argues that as a social-economic system, capitalism is committed to sexism and racism (2004:17). In your own words, describe the degradation of women that Federici points to in chapter one of her work. How does she connect that degradation to accumulations of wealth in a capitalist political economy?