Educational Catalogue of Resources: Feminism

Published in 1887 as a review of August Bebel's Woman: Past, Present and Future in Commonweal, Edward Aveline and Eleanor Marx explored problem of the dual oppression of women, under markets and patriarchy.

In 1896, Clara Zetkin grappled with the divide between bourgeois feminism and working-class women’s struggles.

In 1906, Emma Goldman faced the problem that, although women’s rights have expanded in certain areas, the broader emancipation of women is still far from being achieved. 

Alexandra Kollontai, a Russian socialist, played a major role in movements regarding the working class rights, particularly of women. In this pamphlet she goes on to talk about the ongoing subordination of women and the lack of social democracy

In Woman Suffrage (1910), Emma Goldman deals with the issue of the limited scope of the women's suffrage movement.

In 1912, Rosa Luxemburg addressed the lack of political rights for working women, particularly their exclusion from suffrage, and the broader social and economic injustices that stem from their political disenfranchisement.

In The Woman Question, a speech delivered in 1913, De Cleyre graples with the problem of women's economic dependence and the oppressive nature of traditional marriage. 

In Communism and the Family, Kollontai argues that the traditional bourgeois family is being transformed by socialism, as women gain economic independence and state-supported services begin to replace domestic roles.

In 1920, Witkop-Rocker addresses the problem of male comrades opposing women’s unions, which were essential for addressing women's needs, particularly those of housewives and non-producers.

In 1935, Margaret Cowl addressed the systemic inequalities faced by women in capitalist societies, arguing that women's oppression was rooted in the exploitation of labour under private property systems.

In this work, Mary Inman addresses the problem of the undervaluation and invisibility of housework, particularly the labour of housewives, within capitalist society.

In 1949, Claudia Jones addresses the intersecting oppression faced by Black women, particularly in how they are negected in both feminist and civil rights movements.

In 1949, Claudia Jones grappled with the challenge of addressing women's inequality within capitalist society, particularly the compounded oppression faced by working-class and Black women.

In 1970, the Radicalesbians addressed the marginalization of lesbians within the broader feminist movement and society, focusing on how their identities were shaped by a patriarchal culture.

Angela Davis addresses the problem of the historical distortion of Black women’s roles during slavery, particularly the harmful stereotypes of Black women as either "matriarchs" or emasculating figures.

In 1976, Monique Wittig challenged the foundational concept of sex, arguing that it is not a natural biological category but a political construct designed to uphold male dominance.

In 1976, Barbara Ehrenreich examined the relationship between feminism and socialism, highlighting the limitations of both radical feminism and mechanical materialism.

What happens when a community refuses to stay silent about its own erasure? That’s at the heart of Let Me Speak!, the powerful testimony of Domitila Barrios de Chungara, a Bolivian miner’s wife who found her voice in union organizing and the Housewives’ Committees.

The Combahee River Collective, a group of Black queer socialist feminists, wrote their 1977 statement out of frustration with existing liberation movements that failed to address their oppression.

In 1978, Audre Lorde explored the concept of the erotic as a powerful and transformative force for women, arguing that it has been suppressed and distorted within patriarchal societies to maintain control over women’s emotions and desires. 

In 1980, Audre Lorde examined the ways in which societal structures oppress marginalized groups by enforcing a "mythical norm" that ignores the complexities of human differences, particularly along lines of race, class, sex, and sexuality.

In 1981, Monique Wittig addressed the problem of how the concept of "woman" as a natural and essential category perpetuates the oppression of women by obscuring its social and political construction.

In 1981, Angela Davis addressed the persistent undervaluation of housework, particularly the way it disproportionately burdens women and remains largely invisible within capitalist economies.

Judith Butler addresses the problem of the rigid and binary understanding of gender within traditional feminist theory. 

In Night to His Day, Judith Lorber unsettles the taken-for-granted belief that gender is natural or inevitable. Instead, she shows how gender is something we do, a continuous and collective performance maintained through norms, institutions, and everyday interactions. 

In Chapter 2 of her book The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability (1996), Susan Wendell argues that disability is not simply located in the body but is produced by the interaction between bodies and social structures.

In her 1989 article, Kimberlé Crenshaw addresses the problem of marginalizing Black women’s experiences within both feminist and anti-racist frameworks.

This chapter, Under Siege in Somalia, recounts Abdi's encounter with armed soldiers and albeit brief, but frightening, apprehension of her sanctuary. She goes through the multi-day siege and describes the terror filled air as armed soldiers took ahold of their space.