Page 194 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Sociology of Kinship

Notes dency of stabilising adult people in Marxist structure. She sees the emotional and affectionate
support of wife to her husband as a safety valve for hopelessness. It is the hopelessness emerged
due to working in the capitalist arrangement by the husband. A wife tries to absorb the hope-
lessness of her husband by being soft, sympathetic, comfortable and affectionate towards him.
In the words of Ansaly, “Since every labour has a sponge to absorb his probable revolutionary
wrath, the employer feels more secured to himself”. Ultimately, some of the feminist writers had
indicated towards the dominance of males in family and joins it with the stability of capitalist
arrangement. Most men rules over their wives and children in such a shallow way which gives
power to express their anger and wrath that no challenge emerges for arrangement.
As we have seen in the starting paragraphs of this division, Angels had accepted the manifesta-
tion of property as in form of the dependency of women. Mainly this is true in reference to the
private ownership of power of production. It is interesting that Marx and Angels both had seen
the increasing demand of women labour in the capitalist society of 19 century in form of the
th
beginning of women freedom movement. They argues that the employment of woman will get
them free to a certain extent from their economical dependency on their husbands and in this
way it will reduce the male-dominance on them in the family.
It was a belief of Marx and Angels that the real equality between both the sexes can be estab-
lished in a socialist society because there will be no existence of domestic works and fainted
duty of mother and it will not be maintained by separate women. All the work will be vested
in the community. In the words of Angels, “The management of home in personal form will be
connected into social industry and the birth and nurture of a child will become a social issue”.
In capitalist society, on large scale women had entered to the labour market. But women hadn’t
succeed to get freedom from male dominance which is clear from the writings of the feminist
writers in this division above. By the comparative study of working women and housewives, it
is clear that the nature of power relation inside a family has not been changed entirely. It is also
seen in that positions also where women works outside of home. Some feminist writers says
even that in capitalist society, the fulfillment of labour by women on account of wages makes
the capitalist arrangement strong because entrance of large number of women labour reduces
wages and increases profit.
In socialist societies also, all the things are not held in that way which was predicted by
Marx and Angels even before hundred years. In labour-market of Soviet Union, the position
of women is reformed widely. In 1922 A.D., it was 22% of entire labour power. In 1973, the
percentage became 91%. Besides this fact that women constitute more than half labour pow-
er, the primary responsibilities of household works and caring children are on the head of
women only. David Lane had reported that in Soviet Union, it is difficult to adjust the domes-
tic and commercial roles for women. Specially, in rural areas the traditional view about the
position is not changed yet in reference to the family. David Lane reached to this conclusion
that the collective ownership on production power is “an insufficient condition necessary for
women-freedom”. He also says that the cultural view is defined or modified by economic con-
ditions not fully but partially only. Lane further says this, “More than thousand years of long
history of dependency of women affects the tendency learned by males and where the socialist
governments can bring change in those societies also where ladies are accepted in authoritative
roles also”. Hilda Scott, who lived in Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1973 had given a report,
after surveying the position of women in Eastern European families, that house-hold duties
of women were like women of Soviet Union. Her conclusion is very important in this view:
“Preliminary forerunners of Marxism had not felt that behind this somewhere there is lack of
awareness was present as factor to abolish which was more difficult that to get recognition for
the rights of labours or blocks or other minorities and depressed class people because the belief
of worthlessness of women is older and deeper in which the whole habitation comes. The main

188 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY