The author of this web page compares Marxism to Radical Feminism, and eventually combines the two into Marxist Feminism. Radical Feminism, like Marxism, is defined as a conflict theory in that the relationship between the two sexes in our society is one of inequality and oppression. Both radical feminists and Marxists focus on a power struggle between the oppressed and the elite within our society, and both seek revolutionary change. Marxists believe that the oppression of the masses comes from any form of social control placed on the oppressed by the capitolist elite. Ideology, religion, and politics are all forms of control that function to keep the masses happy, unaware of their position of total inequality, or apathetic.
Radical feminists feel that they are oppressed by the patriarchy.
The extraordinarily high accounts of violence against women are viewed by radical feminists as forms of social control. Marxist feminism combines these two ideas to define the origins of gender inequality. Capitalist men control women's labor, the labor market becomes segregated, and traditional women's jobs are devalued. Marriage becomes the equivalent of a job for some women, who are left with the majority of the responsibility of raising the kids. And since the family is an agent of reproduction, the entire process of social stratification repeats itself from generation to generation.