Peggy Powell Dobbins - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Peggy Powell Dobbins
Critical Sociology, 1977
This paper argues that the relation between advances in the status of women and degeneration of c... more This paper argues that the relation between advances in the status of women and degeneration of capitalism is a dialectical one. The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the late ’60’s and ’70’s is seen as a political cultural movement which the capitalist class permitted in order to legitimate recruitment of cheap female labor to keep profits high at a particular point in the capitalist economic cycle. The paper attempts to demonstrate that the WLM occurred at that point in the cycle when supply and demand equalized and when the rate of profit in capital intensive industries began to fall. During this stage wage squeezes and massive cutbacks in the regular labor force of predominantly male unionized labor were not yet possible for the capitalists. Profit yields however would be kept high by shifting capital investments into those industries which could tap the cheap labor of unorganized women in the Industrial Reserve Army (IRA). This paper presents empirical data on shifts in capital investment and employment of women during the ebb and flow of the WLM. It is argued that while feminism thrives during the stage when the Industrial Army is tapped and women constitute a large component of it, as the cycle advances and the reserve army is swelled by the entry of unemployed men, women are scapegoated and feminism repressed. A dialectical analysis of these findings is urged on women and labor theorists. On the one hand as long as capitalism persists the movement for women’s equality will be buffeted between reform and repression, depending on the stage of the capitalist economic cycle. On the other hand while the capitalists’ survival of each cycle depends increasingly upon reforms and repression to manipulate the IRA and sex differentiation within it. These very manipulations increasingly assure their ultimate demise and the role of women workers in their demise. In the reform period the ideology of female equality is strengthened and women advance towards equality as wage slaves. In the repressive period, the objective equality of men and women in the reserve army is advanced despite this objective appeal of scapegoating propaganda, and the ideological need for unity is hammered out by the advanced male and female members of the working class.
This book is concerned with what happens to women when wars officially end. Along with several ot... more This book is concerned with what happens to women when wars officially end. Along with several other volumes 1 it recognises that women face particular difficulties at such "aftermath" moments which often have very strong continuities with what happened during wars, and with the nature of gender relations in society prior to armed conflict. At the international level remarkable progress has been made: in establishing women"s legal rights; in the identification of sexual violence as a potential war crime; and even progress in some women"s abilities to access such legal frameworks. Nonetheless, when faced with a postwar backlash from men and the state, women in highly varied cultural contexts tend to face distinct difficulties as they seek justice for crimes committed against them during and after wars; when they attempt to participate in "truth and reconciliation" endeavours, and when they attempt to rebuild their lives. This book 2 explores how far we have come both through international frameworks and in particular countries, and examines the ways in which the endings of war still often bring highly gendered challenges for women which are themselves often violent.
Critical Sociology, 1977
This paper argues that the relation between advances in the status of women and degeneration of c... more This paper argues that the relation between advances in the status of women and degeneration of capitalism is a dialectical one. The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the late ’60’s and ’70’s is seen as a political cultural movement which the capitalist class permitted in order to legitimate recruitment of cheap female labor to keep profits high at a particular point in the capitalist economic cycle. The paper attempts to demonstrate that the WLM occurred at that point in the cycle when supply and demand equalized and when the rate of profit in capital intensive industries began to fall. During this stage wage squeezes and massive cutbacks in the regular labor force of predominantly male unionized labor were not yet possible for the capitalists. Profit yields however would be kept high by shifting capital investments into those industries which could tap the cheap labor of unorganized women in the Industrial Reserve Army (IRA). This paper presents empirical data on shifts in capital investment and employment of women during the ebb and flow of the WLM. It is argued that while feminism thrives during the stage when the Industrial Army is tapped and women constitute a large component of it, as the cycle advances and the reserve army is swelled by the entry of unemployed men, women are scapegoated and feminism repressed. A dialectical analysis of these findings is urged on women and labor theorists. On the one hand as long as capitalism persists the movement for women’s equality will be buffeted between reform and repression, depending on the stage of the capitalist economic cycle. On the other hand while the capitalists’ survival of each cycle depends increasingly upon reforms and repression to manipulate the IRA and sex differentiation within it. These very manipulations increasingly assure their ultimate demise and the role of women workers in their demise. In the reform period the ideology of female equality is strengthened and women advance towards equality as wage slaves. In the repressive period, the objective equality of men and women in the reserve army is advanced despite this objective appeal of scapegoating propaganda, and the ideological need for unity is hammered out by the advanced male and female members of the working class.
This book is concerned with what happens to women when wars officially end. Along with several ot... more This book is concerned with what happens to women when wars officially end. Along with several other volumes 1 it recognises that women face particular difficulties at such "aftermath" moments which often have very strong continuities with what happened during wars, and with the nature of gender relations in society prior to armed conflict. At the international level remarkable progress has been made: in establishing women"s legal rights; in the identification of sexual violence as a potential war crime; and even progress in some women"s abilities to access such legal frameworks. Nonetheless, when faced with a postwar backlash from men and the state, women in highly varied cultural contexts tend to face distinct difficulties as they seek justice for crimes committed against them during and after wars; when they attempt to participate in "truth and reconciliation" endeavours, and when they attempt to rebuild their lives. This book 2 explores how far we have come both through international frameworks and in particular countries, and examines the ways in which the endings of war still often bring highly gendered challenges for women which are themselves often violent.