Worker: "only if she will profit from it as well, will we support you suffragetes"

Feminisme en Socialisme
Anja Meulenbelt
110 pages
published in 1976

Anja Meulenbelt is a feminist and socialist who last year was elected into the upper house of parliament for the party I also support and volunteer for, the Socialistische Partij. Having met her a few times and seen her speak at party meetings as well as public debates she has impressed me both with her obvious intelligence and with the unruffled calm demeanour with which she holds to her viewpoints, unpopular or not, as well as the way she enters confrontations, not scared to stand her ground. Which is why I bought this book when I saw it at a local secondhand bookstall.

Socialisme en Feminisme, which translates as Socialism and Feminism was published in 1976 as a primer for women who were sympathetic to both ideas, but unsure about what they were, exactly. It wasn't meant as an indepth study and is kept deliberately simple. Of course, it is also written from a specific political viewpoint, that of feminist socialism, which argued and still argues that the emancipation of women and of workers are struggles that cannot be separated and should be fought at the same time. Feminism without socialism does not solve the built-in inequalities of the capitalist system, which play a large part in keeping women down, while socialism without feminism, with the issue of women liberation postponed until after the glorious revolution would still leave women as second class citizens.

Meulenbelt starts with a short introduction of the subject and the need for a general primer, argueing along similar lines as I did above. She then moves on to short historical overviews of patriarchy and capitalism. These are amongst the least convincing parts, as their short lengths means these are treated in a very simplistic manner.

This is also the case at the end of the book, where the short character sketches of the position of women in then Soviet Russia and still communist China seems somewhat naive, even though Meulenbelt is open to criticism in both cases. Simularly, the strategies she outlines are kept very general and should be seen as a starting points, rather than ready made solutions.

The strength of this book instead lies with the analysis Meulenbelt gives of the contemporary situation in the Netherlands, which may stand in for the contemporay situation in most if not all western countries. She starts with the traditional role of women, housewife, showing how capitalism in general profits from having an unpaid, second workforce which helps keep its primary workforce, the men working in factories and offices, satisfied enough not to rebel.

Meulenbelt then moves on to women working outside the house and the double taxation under which they suffer, from being both a fulltime worker as well as being a housewife. From there on, Meulenbelt analyses the role of the nuclear family and the ideology which helps keep the traditional rolepattern intact. The endresult is an impressive analysis of contemporary reality for Dutch women in 1976.

Since then of course, a lot has changed. Much of the traditional role patterns still overwhelmingly present in 1976 have altered to some extent, but at the same time much of Meulenbelt's analysis is still valid. For one, it is still very much the case that even when both partners are working, it is the women who does must of the household chores and it's still the women who are obliged to give up their careers to take care of the children and family. More insidious, there still is very much a sense in the Netherlands at least, that a woman's job is a luxury, not something to be taken too seriously and easily given up when the economical climate gets worse. Finally, her analysis of how capitalism profits from women's largely unpaid work is still as valid as it was then.

What adds an added dimension to Feminisme en Socialisme to me is seeing how much of Meulenbelt's analysis can be applied to my on mother's life. I was born in 1974 and never consciously lived in the environment Meulenbelt described; but looking back I can definately see the impact of these role patterns on my mother's life. She worked as a primary school teacher, until she became pregnant with, well, me and from then on only had one role: housewife and mother, until years later she started working again, first doing voluntary work, later working as a attendant for mentally disabled children, but fired when the budgets for this work were cut. As Meulenbelt also notes, she was the first one to notice economic trouble; when money was scarce, she had to cut her household budget and still feed four/five children and a husband.

A good example than of how the personal is often also the political.