‘—

Assignment #4

In the Middle age, Europe was using feudal economy system. Emperor was giving territories to feudal lords, and they were having full authorities of that land. However, at the late Middle Age, feudal economy was destroyed, and new system called ‘Capitalism’ exposed to outside. Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. This new economic and political system looked like a revolution of economic system because this system was putting emphasis on the equality of people. However, as the time passed, capitalism started to cause many problems. In the Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Frederici state that capitalism created sexism and racism in the society. For example, she showed disparagement of women while capitalism was the economic and social system.

During the transition from feudalism to capitalism, over-exploitation threatened the collapse of the whole system. In addition, the workforce was barely survived. To keep the capitalism, it required the process which was making people in the society like a work-machine, and the conquest of women to the reproduction of the work-force. The subjugation of women was achieved by “witch hunt.” In addition, women were treated badly as labor. For example, Women were paid less than men, and increasingly excluded from most wage work. Furthermore, state policies were exacerbated misogyny within the working class and male craftsmen fought to cut off women who were in many professions, because they were afraid that women’s participation would drop the value of their own work. Women’s activity came to be considered as ‘not workers.’

Eventually, this degradation of women helped capitalism to create wealth. For instance, the sexual division of labor divided and controlled the working class. These processes allowed the capitalist class to secure control over labor.