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| By Liya Ann Mary |
‘Girlboss’ and ‘Shattering the Glass Ceiling’ are phrases that are ever so popular among feminists these days, or white/elite feminists to be more precise. While it is easy to believe that capitalism and feminism can go hand in hand or that you attain the "epitome" of feminism by being the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the reality is very different.
Feminism has come far and has faced its fair share of hurdles along the way, if not more. But today, it faces one of the worst enemies possible: capitalism. This is not your average "blame everything on capitalism" argument. But today, feminism as a whole is questioned and threatened. The movement is being appropriated and hijacked by capitalism. These might seem like scandalous claims, but if you analyse the facts and figures, the picture becomes quite clear.
Now, all of us have a basic understanding of what capitalism and feminism are. And that in itself should be proof enough of how capitalism and feminism can't go hand in hand.
A fundamental and ground-level definition of capitalism can be that it is an economic system in which businesses are owned and run for profit by individuals and not by the state (i.e., the government), or we can even say that capitalism supports a free market. This design, or rather this flawed design, can be explained by the good old American Dream: you work hard, earn money, and live a comfortable life. But this is not what translates into reality. What happens is that a few men sit at the top of the food chain and exploit everyone they can, getting richer and richer only to have patents for life-saving drugs and inaccessible healthcare.
The supporters of capitalism do not take into account the systems that enabled such a structure in the first place: slave trade, slave labour, imperialism, genocide, and much more. The "first world" or developed countries are ahead of the rest because they had a never-ending supply of labour, raw materials, markets, and the backup of several economies that they colonised and exploited. People of colour were forced to work for them, starve for them, and fight for them. And on the backs of people of colour stands the oppressive system that is capitalism. In short, capitalism is a socio-economic system that thrives completely on the hegemony of exploitation.
Feminism, on the other hand, is a social movement that aims to bring equality to all. This means that no one is discriminated against based on their gender, class, race, sexuality, etc. Feminism demands an egalitarian society. And therefore, capitalism and feminism differ in their core values. And feminists from these first-world countries can never truly understand and represent marginalised women, solely because it is not their lived reality and moreover because acknowledging the double marginalisation would threaten their hegemony and privilege.
Under the capitalist structure, the employment of women is generally seen in the lowest levels of the job or the low-skilled areas because, according to the bourgeois, men are the main economic purveyors. In this oppressive framework, women are disproportionately affected by economic oppression through forced labour, meagre wages, the triple burden of work, lack of access to resources, and opportunities. Even today, Capitalism profits from the unpaid domestic work of women. It is because systems and countries do not have to invest in childcare and care for the elderly that they are able to make superprofits. The burden is placed on women.
According to a study by Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee of the University of Pennsylvania, women are the last to be employed and the first to be fired during financial crises. It is no secret that women suffered more during the most recent European crisis and that austerity measures that have reduced public funding have caused women much greater suffering. Capitalism has always and will always affect women the most harshly. An example is the aftermath of environmental degradation like food insecurity and water crises and how it affects women disproportionately. And even there, it affects women of colour, disabled women, and other marginalised women much more than the elite.
Capitalism as a system also promotes individualism over collectivism, and this stands against the basics of feminism, which is a collective movement. Feminism is about eradicating inequalities, solidarity with the masses, and more importantly equality for all. And capitalism, in its very nature, is against this and only perpetuates further inequality.
Feminism isn't and shouldn't be about owning million-dollar cars or homes, as is frequently represented in popular media. So the next time you see a white woman gloat on national TV for making it to the top, understand that they are able to do that because of privilege. Privileges that came at the cost of others, mostly marginalised women, What good is a seat at the table if you still profit from the bonded labour of women and children? Feminism can truly prosper and achieve its true goals only when it dismantles capitalism.
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