LEARN THE ISSUES
"Advocating Economic & Personal Change"


Feminism

Feminism, the personal and social posture predicated on, and advocating, the assertion of the full equality of the genders, is completely consistent with the One Human Family program and world-view.

We would simply point out that of the several power imbalances in present-day society, the imbalance between owners and workers is the overarching or parent imbalance. For example, a female business owner or manager can oppress and exploit a woman worker just as readily as a male owner or manager can, and indeed, oppression and exploitation of workers by owners is part-and-parcel of the normal operation of the money-and-profit system, regardless of the respective genders of those in either group. The compulsive and pathological demands of competition, the marketplace, and shareholders march on with negligible concern for gender.

Moreover, as women emerged through the centuries in an inferior social and economic position, the owning class found in them a group that could be controlled and exploited somewhat more easily than men could--and it was only too happy to take advantage of this unfortunate reality for as long as it could. Catastrophes such as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire were but one example of the result.

March 2006 saw the 95th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, where over 145 people were killed, the majority of whom were young women. The owners of that company were acquitted of criminality, and paid a relatively small fine in civil prosecutions. In fact, once you begin to peek under the rock of capitalism, you find an infinite number of slimy bugs, many of which represent injuries to, and crimes against, women.

Ultimately then, while patriarchal or male-dominated power relationships must be corrected even now under capitalism, and we should work actively to this end, ultimately women are in the same sinking same boat as men, in that they will never experience full liberation until we transition our society to a moneyless, classless Cooperative System.

In broad social terms, in other words, capitalist domination trumps, and indeed in some measure, drives, patriarchal domination. Thus, a key task in eradicating the latter is to eradicate the former. We must work on both, simultaneously!

For now, let us round out this introductory commentary on Feminism by observing that BOMA does not hold official positions on issues that are subject to good-faith disagreement. In the area of abortion, for example, some individuals see it as immoral and wrong, while others understand it as a sound and rightful option for women. This is a fundamental human disagreement about when meaningful life begins that may continue even under a Cooperative System. Thus, the role of BOMA is not to advocate for one side or the other, but to analyze and deconstruct the issue from a Cooperative standpoint, to illustrate to both sides what the role of capitalism is in causing or exacerbating the problem or the issue.

For example, regarding abortion, if women had a higher degree of economic security than capitalism permits, some percentage of them would probably decide to forego abortion, and have and keep their child. Additionally, we know that oftentimes young women become pregnant in the first place simply to bolster their self-image or to feel there is something in the world they can "call their own"; thus, if these women had a higher degree of self-esteem and security than capitalism permits, they would likely not seek pregnancy as a route to these desiderata.

Thus do we see that in large measure, abortion, like most human issues and conflicts, is something of a false issue. The real and underlying problem is capitalism, a money-and-profit system that perfunctorily deprives women--and everyone else--of resources, financial, psychological, and emotional, and relegates people to mere objects or factors of production, used for the benefit of the owning class in the manner that maximizes its profit interests, tossed aside when done.

Only a Cooperative Society can provide the holistic and love-centered economic, social, psychological, and emotional environment necessary to prevent and obviate false choices and issues such as abortion, and readily and organically allow all its citizens, including the female gender, to provide for their own well-being.

Please also see our essay on the general topic of women.




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