Christine Delphy and Firestone about gender issues Essay

These two authors mentioned above rather preferred to analyse gender issues by separating the male from the female and first examining the male as the head of the house or breadwinner, then assessing the case of the woman as the breadwinner as well. According to Christine Delphy, class could also serve as a yardstick through which the disparities between husbands and wives could be measured. In Delphy's explanation it was made clear that husbands were a different entity with their own class as well as housewives. The difference between them was that one class was producing and the other was controlling the production class. The controlling class in this case was the 'husbands' while 'wives' were the producing class whose efforts were exploited. Delphy also compared housework to any other form of productive activity. To her, domestic work consumed much effort just like any other activity so wives took care of the house in order to satisfy their husband's standards.
Criticisms were raised as usual against Delphy's explanations. She was accused of not recognizing the differences that existed among females themselves. These differences would not allow any feminists to categorise women or wives as one class (Barett and Mcintosh, 1979). Also the type of husband the woman married determined the standard of living of the woman herself. If the husband is a middle income earner, definitely their standard of living would be better than a law income earner. Since Delphy's explanation was based on Marxist theory of production, it was subjected to another major criticism which argued that not all women could be categorized as housewives because some were not. Therefore this situation renders Delphy's explanations or theory partial. In an attempt to defend his work she explained that almost every woman has the wish of being a housewife hence it is only right categorise all of them as housewives.
Another feminist who resorted to Marxist's basic concepts to explain her own opinion of women discrimination and oppression was Firestone. Her own approach on class was similar to but much broader than that of Delphy. According to her, gender itself was enough yardstick to determine class (Firestone, 1974), therefore there was no need to narrow down the categorisation into husbands and housewives as was in the case of Delphy. She also explained that naturally the reproductive functions of women also limited their operations with respect to men. These functions include breastfeeding, birth, pregnancy, menstruation and so on. In conclusion, class strongly has a thing going on with gender relations because its explanation recognizes concepts such as social inequality. However, it needs to be a firmly established relationship that considers the non-economic aspects of the females as subordinates.
1.2.8. Reproduction and Motherhood
The issue of reproduction was subject to contrasting views between radical libertarian and radical cultural feminists. Libertarians believe that reproduction is one of the greatest functions that holds women in high esteem therefore at any point in time women must employ all sorts of means (both natural and artificial) to achieve reproduction.