Effect of Increasing Division of Labor on Gender Inequality

1. Effect of Increasing Division of Labor on Gender Inequality • Shift to production for exchange • Surplus held by a few men at the top • Lower classes and women dependent • Extrahousehold (public) sector dominated by men • Household (private) sphere devalued • Women labor for family use & reproduction • Women lose adult status, become male property

2. Materialist Theory • Marxist theory critiqued and refined • Materialist paradigm still useful and influential • Economic base (infrastructure) • Means of production = land, tools, equipment, factories, etc. used for livelihood • Relations of production = class relations between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and non-owners who labor (proletariat) • Determines superstructure • Other parts of culture, e.g., law, political & social structure, ideology Ideology Social organization Economic subsistence

3. Materialist Feminist Theory • Eleanor Leacock – Innu of Labrador • Commercial fur trade 1800s • Production for use  production for exchange • Women removed from economic activities • Women lose status, power, autonomy • Sedentarization of nomadic/foraging groups • Women removed from productive roles • Two primary factors in women’s status • Contribution to subsistence • Control of resources, including exchange

4. Kimmel • Theories that rely on biological inevitability • warfare • male bonding • exchange of women

5. Kimmel: Correlations of Gender Asymmetry • Need for physical strength • Family size • Childcare • Father & son relationship • Control of fertility • Control over property • Spatial and ritual segregation • Perception of environment • Contribution to food supply • Work segregation • Control of political & ideological resources • Capitalism & industrialization • Demographic imbalance • Circumcision

6. Rapp – Women and the Origin of the State Historical, political, economic, & kinship systems in relation to subordination of women • Elite women in ranked (pre-state) societies • Increased stratification and hypergamy • Emphasis on women’s purity  control sexuality • Religious change • goddesses  gods • India: Dravidian vs. Aryan • Christian androgyny

7. Rapp – Women and the Origin of the State • Warfare • Warriors valued  male privilege • Warrior absence  female autonomy • Trade • Labor exploitation • Marriage alliances, polygyny • Bridewealth and class • Women as traders • Penetration into Third World • Colonialism, development • Women lose power, property, autonomy, valued roles

8. Domestic/Public Divide • Rosaldo and Lamphere: Women, Culture, and Society 1974 • Rosaldo: D/P correlation with women’s status • Domestic/public dichotomy weak  women’s status higher • Chodorow: Reproduction and mothering • Female continuity vs. male separation • -e.g. Herdt: Sambia of New Guinea

9. Domestic/Public Divide • Critiques of D/P dichotomy • Universal? • Influence of women’s struggles in U.S. • Never absolute – e.g. different uses, times • Generalization vs. real complexities • Different subject positions (class, race, etc.) • Historical development: industrial workplace • Western paradigms of D/P relative power • e.g. Java, India • ‘Patriarchy’