Diotima: The Marist Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
meaning into their lives by working, pursuing an education, and becoming involved
in the community. 20
Furthermore, Marx’s materialist conception of history has been utilized as an
instrument to help examine contemporary problems in modern society by
philosophers and scholars alike because his account is regarded as considerably
timeless and multifaceted. Marx’s theory of history, alongside his ruling class
theory, has influenced the work of Angela Davis, a world-renowned Black feminist
political theorist who argued that housework is exploitative for women and another
form of “unwaged labor,” which is another central concept in Mar xist literature. 21
Davis emphasizes that it is important to reiterate that she considers herself a
Marxist because she has used this lens to conceptualize other important elements
that perpetuate class inequality, such as the overlap between race and gender.
Davis holds that the capitalist economy is structurally hostile to the
industrialization of housework because it entails large government subsidies to
ensure access to working-class families who have the highest need for such services
and help combat patriarchal oppression by discontinuing the perpetual exploitation
of ‘women’s labor’ that has taken place in the home. For Davis, capitalism and
intersectional social equality are irreconcilable because capitalism requires the use
of exploited labor in order to reinforce its agenda. In Freedom Is a Constant
Struggle , a collection of essays and interviews that coincided with the mass
movement and protests in Ferguson, Missouri, which took place after United States
law enforcement fatally shot Michael Brown in 2014, Davis emphasizes that society
needs to make a collective effort to fight against social disparities and discusses the
shortcomings of capitalism to illustrate how exploitation and oppression are
20 See Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s, (NY: Basic Books, 2011), 30, and bell hooks, “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity between Women.” Feminist Review , no. 23 (1986): 125 – 38. https://doi.org/10.2307/1394725. 21 Angela Davis, “Women, Race and Class the Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working -
Class Perspective,” in Women, Race and Class (1981), accessed October 6, 2023, https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/davis-angela/housework.htm.
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Volume VI (2023)
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