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Assignment 04

Federici describes the degradation of women as a relation to the changes in the social-economic system in Europe and the New World. As the economy of Europe changed from Feudalism to Capitalism, women’s roles changed along with it. Federici says, “the ‘transition to capitalism’ is a test case for feminist theory, as the redefinition of productive and reproductive tasks and male-female relations that we find in this period” (14). Where a woman’s role in the household was once valued because she was able to knit her family’s clothing and help her husband till their farm, once economic life became commercialized, women were forced to buy their clothing and buy their produce. They could no longer function as imperative forces in their homes. Furthermore, the term “housewife” meant that a woman was working full-time in her home (raising children, cooking, cleaning), as an unrecognized, unpaid laborer. Women were degraded in this way and became dependent on their husbands.

Federici explains that once mercantilism started to grow, there was a dire need for population growth to accommodate such a work force. The wealth of a nation was therefore dependent on its number of citizens. This population crisis put a huge amount of pressure on women. A woman’s role was now to reproduce. Women lost control of their own bodies. They were marginalized if they were taking any form of birth control, if they had complications during pregnancy, or if they were barren. Federici argues that witch hunts came about because of this crisis — men needed someone to blame for the lack of reproduction. Women were deemed witches if they were unable or unwilling to reproduce. Even midwives were blamed if there was a complication during birth. Many midwives were persecuted or lost their jobs. The result was an massive increase in male doctors.

Women saw many forms of discrimination during these economic changes. There came about a new sexual division of labor and sexual hierarchy in a political society. Federici claims, “discrimination that women have suffered in the wage work-force has been directly rooted in their function as unpaid laborers in the home” (94-95). She believes the degradation of women — racism and sexism in labor roles — stemmed from capitalist development and ideologies which marginalized women’s work life in their homes and outside the home as well.