Premium
Gendered Labour in the Ideological Discourse of French Marxism: The Parti Ouvrier Français, 1882–1905
Author(s) -
Stuart Robert
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
gender and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-0424
pISSN - 0953-5233
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0424.00046
Subject(s) - ideology , paternalism , marxist philosophy , proletariat , gender studies , sociology , rhetoric , political science , law , linguistics , politics , philosophy
This article studies the intersection between the Marxist paradigm of class and the feminist paradigm of gender in the ideological rhetoric of the Parti Ouvrier Français between 1882 and 1905, focusing upon the movement’s understanding of women workers. It argues that, although the POF was far more interested in the gender dimension of labour than most historians have recognized, its approach to the female proletariat was vitiated by its ‘productivist’ world view and its tendency to reduce all labour to factory employment, while the French Marxists’ proto‐feminist commitment to women workers as a revolutionary force was undermined by recurrent paternalism.