I already have quite a few pieces of Marxist literature as bookstores in the city I do my art studies in has a good variety, but I don’t have any that are Marxist-Feminist or tackle feminism and queerness from a left wing perspective;
I would definitely rather they not be trans-exlusionary as I find those hard to read and heavily disagree with that point of view, thank you?
Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch is crucial ML-Feminist reading, she even explicitly positions the work as a feminist expansion of Marx’s theories. It primarily deals with the period of primitive accumulation.
I like her Re-Enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons too. It ties in a strong ecological critique.
I had heard about that one before i’ll see if i can get it soon thank you!
Women, race and class by Angela Davis
I would absolutely recommend “The Creation of Patriarchy” by Gerda Lerner. One of my favorite books.
Thank you i’ll have it listed!
I’ve read this, and while its okay, its worth noting that its not a Marxist work, and she’s more concerned with the symbols and religious ideology put in place feudal religions. IE mostly superstructure, and not about the economic base for women’s oppression. For that Lise Vogel - Marxism and the Oppression of Women is much better.
- Lise Vogel - Marxism and the oppression of women
- Silvia Federici - Caliban and the Witch
I recommend reading Alexandra Kollontai’s works, particularly The Social Basis of the Woman Question. As Red Sails points out, feminism has evolved since the work was first published, so it must be read contextually, but the core relationship between feminism and class is a fantastic base for understanding Marxist feminism.
As for transgender Marxism (which isn’t what you asked, but I feel is a necessary complement), I like Leslie Feinberg’s Transgender Liberation: A Marxist View and Nia Frome’s The Problem of Recognition in Transitional States, Or Sympathy for the Monster. Both are great.
Does ‘The Origin of family, Private Property, and the State’ count as Feminist literature?
I already have that one, but sort of yes, it does have an analysis on how women are treated under capitalism but i do feel like it’s more a marxist book that happens to talk about things that fall into feminism, rather than intentionally and explicitly feminist.
Ok. Then,
- Communism and Family by Alexandra Kollontai.
- The Social Basis of the Woman Question by Kollontai.
- The woman worker and peasant in Soviet Russia by Kollontai.
- Make way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth by Kollontai.
- Selected works of Clara Zetkin.
- Lenin on the women’s Question by Clara Zetkin.
- Women in the Land of Socialism by Nina Popova.
- Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis.
- The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone.
- Women’s liberation and Class struggle by Thomas Sankara.
- “Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement” by Anuradha Ghandy
- Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici.
- Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle Silvia Federici.
By non-Marxist Authors,
- Western Women and Imperialism: Complicity and Resistance by Nupur Chaudhuri.
- Gender and Colonialism by Geraldine Moane.
- Gender and imperialism by Clare Midgley.
- The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence by Sara Deer.
Look up work by Claudia Jones
This comrade from hexbear made a great list that will keep you busy for a long time : https://hexbear.net/post/8241650
I would recommend parsing through Alexandra Kollontai with a grain of salt or looking elsewhere entirely. Her work is heavily moralist and even metaphysical, especially in her anti-sex worker drivel. People promote her because she was one of the earliest women marxists to write about women but that doesn’t mean it is good or valuable theory
