Evelyn Reed
1905-1979
Revolutionary leader and women's revolution theorist
The underlying source of women’s oppression, which is capitalism, cannot be abolished by women alone, nor by a coalition
of women drawn from all classes. It will require a worldwide struggle for socialism of the working masses, female and male
alike, together with every other section of the oppressed, to overthrow the power of capitalism which is centered today in the
United States...
First, even though the full goal of women’s liberation cannot be achieved short of the socialist revolution, this does not mean
that the struggle to secure reforms must be postponed until then. It is imperative for Marxist women to fight shoulder to
shoulder with all our embattled sisters in organized actions for specific objectives from now on. This has been our policy
ever since the new phase of the women’s liberation movement surfaced a year or so ago, and even before.
As Marxists we have a more realistic and hopeful message. We deny that women’s inferiority was predestined by her biological makeup or has always existed. Far
from being eternal, woman’s subjugation and the bitter hostility between the sexes are no more than a few thousand years old. They were produced by the drastic
social changes which brought the family, private property and the state into existence.
This view of history points up the necessity for a no less thoroughgoing revolution in socio-economic relations to uproot
the causes of inequality and achieve full emancipation for our sex. This is the purpose and promise of the socialist program,
and this is what we are fighting for.
Excerpt from "Women: Caste, Class or Oppressed Sex" - 1970
