Smith College to offer course on ‘Marxist Feminism’
Smith College is a private women’s liberal arts college in western Massachusetts.
Marxist feminism begins with the “simple insight” that “capitalism relies on the class politics of unpaid, reproductive ‘women’s work," according to the course description.
Smith College students can take a course on “Marxist Feminism” in the spring semester as part of the school’s Program for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality. Smith College is a private women’s liberal arts college in western Massachusetts.
According to the course description, Marxist feminism begins with the “simple insight” that “capitalism relies on the class politics of unpaid, reproductive ‘women’s work.’” Based on this understanding, Marxist feminists have combatted systems of power and oppression, including “patriarchy, slavery, feudalism and colonialism.”
Contemporary Marxist feminists, such as “queer of color and decolonial feminist theory” advocates,” seek to “rejuvenate this tradition of Marxist feminism.” Campus Reform previously reported a course on “Queer of Color Critique,” which will be taught at UMass Boston next spring.
Elisabeth Armstrong, a professor of the Study of Women and Gender, is the faculty member listed for Marxist Feminism. According to her bio, Armstrong “teaches courses on feminist political praxis, with a focus on transnational feminist movements seeking social, economic and environmental transformation.”
She has written books called “Bury the Corpse of Colonialism: The Revolutionary Feminist Conference of 1949,” “Gender and Neoliberalism: The All-India Democratic Women’s Association and Its Strategies of Resistance,” and “The Retreat From Organization: U.S. Feminism Reconceptualized.”
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The Program for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality’s mission is to study “gender, race, class and sexuality as important and simultaneous aspects of social worlds and human lives.”
Many colleges and universities offer courses with positive outlooks on feminism. A University of Utah course currently teaches students about “Feminist Cannabis Studies.” Students “will learn about the contributions of queer and trans* communities to the cannabis movement.”
Also, this fall, the New School is offering a course on how “(eco)feminism” and “(eco)Marxism” are “viable alternatives” to Capitalism.
Campus Reform contacted Smith College, the Program for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality, and Elizabeth Armstrong for comment.
