PARTISAN REVIEW
183
adjective "revolutionary." This revolution must be
both
radical and
conservative. It is conservative in the sense that
it
wilJ reject the ideol–
ogy of unlimited growbh
(ever~increasing
levels of produotivity and con–
sumption; the unlimited cannibalization of the environment) - an ideol–
ogy
shared with equal enbhus.iasm by the countries which call them–
selves capitalist and by those which aspire to communism.
It
is radical
in the sense that it will challenge, and remake, the basically authori–
tarian moral habiIts common to both capitalist and communist countries.
Liberating women is the most radical part of this new revolutionary
process.
In opposition to the whole accredited modern tradition about revo–
lution, I am arguing tha,t
what
used to be called "the woman question"
not only exists but exists independentlly of .the issues generally posed
by polj,tical radicals. Marx, Etngels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg, and
Gramsci held tlhat the oppression of women was not a separa,te problem,
but raJtlher one to be absorbed by the class struggle and eventually re–
solved by the creation of socialism. I do not agree. The fact is, no gov–
errunent which claims to operate on part of Marx's legacy has rethought
the condi,tion of women. On -tlhe contrary, every communist country has
been content w1th offering women merely liberal irnprovemenJts in their
situations - like increased access to education and jobs and divorces–
while preserving intact the overwhelming monopoly of political power
by man, and leaving unohanged the structures of repression that char–
acterize private relations between 1Jhe ,two sexes. But ,this striking failure
of all countries where left-revolutionary governments have come to power
to do anything "radical" for women shou'ld not be
surpri~ing.
In none
of the many edifying declarations made by the principal theorists of pro–
letarian revolution
m
favor of emancipating women has the true com–
plexity of the question ever -been grasped. Marxists have not properly
estimated tlhe depth of sexism any more tlhan, in setting out to defeat
imperialism, they properly estimated ,the depths of racism.
Now, to the questions you do ask.
1.
What meaning does the idea of women's liberation have tor you?
One often hears now that the liberation of women cannot take place
without the liberation of men. The cliche is true, up to a point. Women
and men share the same ultimate aim : to gain genuine autonomy, which
means participating in (and being -let alone by) a society 1lhat is not
based on -alienation a,nd repression. But the cliche is also dangerous, for
it implicitly denies ,that there are stages rn ,the struggle to liberate
wom–
en. Like many cliches which are true, it disarms thought and pacifies
rage. It encourages a passive and merely reformist view of the problem.
