Programme / Topic List

for the IIRE Women's Schools 1992-1998

I. Marxism and Feminism

1. Preliminary Readings

2. Historical materialist method

3. Marxist economic analysis

4. The nature and role of the state

5. Oppression and the sexual division of labour

6. Social and political functions of the family

7. Feminist analysis

8. Class, race and gender

II. Issues around which women organise

III. Reproductive rights

IV. Sexuality

V. Violence against women

VI. Trade unions

VII. History / Regional Issues and Cases

VIII. History of the women's movement and women's struggles

IX. Regional issues and cases

X. Strategy, Building the Movement, and Party Building

XI. Autonomous women's movement

XII. Building feminist parties

I. Marxism and Feminism

1. Preliminary Readings

1. FI 11th World Congress, “Socialist revolution and the struggle for women’s liberation” (from 1979 World Congress of the Fourth International: Major Resolutions and Reports)

2. FI 13th World Congress, “Resolution on women in Latin America: Dynamics and convergence of mass movements and feminist currents” (from International Marxist Review no. 11/12, summer 1991)

3. FI 13th World Congress, “Resolution on women in Western Europe and North America: The Changing forms of the struggle for women’s liberation” (from International Marxist Review no. 11/12, summer 1991)

4. Stephanie Coontz, Sexual Oppression and Class Oppression (IIRE Working Paper no. 13, 1990)

5. Peter Drucker, “In the Tropics There Is No Sin”: Sexuality and Gay/Lesbian Movements in the Third World (IIRE Working Paper no. 31, 1994)

6. Penny Duggan, The Feminist Challenge to Traditional Political Organizing (IIRE Working Paper no. 33, 1997)

2. Historical materialist method

* Historical materialist method (1998) – Michael Löwy

1. Texts from Marx and Engels.

2. Frédérique Vinteuil, “Marxism and feminism”, translated from Critique Communiste, special issue on Marx, 1983

3. Perry Anderson, In the Tracks of Historical Materialism, London: Verso, 1983. Extracts from the Postscript

* Historical materialism: modes of production; class and gender (1997) Stephanie Coontz

1. Frédérique Vinteuil, “Marxism and feminism” (translated from Critique Communiste, spécial Marx, 1983)

2. Perry Anderson, In the Tracks of Historical Materialism, London: Verso, 1983. Extracts from the Postscript

3. Marx and Engels, texts taken from various works

4. Karl Marx, Capital, volume 1, Penguin, 1976. Extracts from Chapter 15: “Machinery and large-scale industry”

* Women and modes of production (1998) Wally Seccombe

1. Michèle Barrett, “Some conceptual problems in Marxist feminist analysis: patriarchy”. In: Women’s Oppression Today

2. Friedrich Engels, “Preface to the first edition 1884”. In: The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, New York: Pathfinder, 1972

3. Susan Caldwell, “Working class lives”. In: International Viewpoint no. 298, March 1998

4. Wally Seccombe, “Conclusion”. In: A Millenium of Family Change, London: Verso, 1995

5. Excerpts from Wally Seccombe, Weathering the Storm, London: Verso, 1993

* Women and modes of production. Origins of women’s oppression. Patriarchy and class society (1997) Stephanie Coontz

1. Ernest Mandel, Marxist Economic Theory. Excerpts from Chapter 1: “Labour, necessary product, surplus product”

2. Stephanie Coontz, Sexual and Class Oppression

* Marxism and Feminism (1997) Stephanie Coontz

1. Michèle Barrett, Women’s opppression today: problems in Marxist feminist analysis, London: Verso, 1980. Extracts from Chapter 1, “Some conceptual problems in Marxist feminist analysis”, and Chapter 8

2. Michèle Barrett, “Words and things: materialism and method in contemporary feminist analysis”. In: Michèle Barrett and Anne Phillips (eds), Destabilizing Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates, Stanford Univ. Press, 1992

3. Yvonne Taylor and Judy Watson, “Women’s opression benefits men?”

4. Joan Scott, “Gender: a useful category of historical analysis”

5. Selma James, “Introduction”. In: Mariarosa Dalla Costa & Selma James, The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, Falling Wall Press, 1972

* Patriarchy, class society, race and gender (1997) Stephanie Coontz

1. Zillah R. Eisenstein, “Developing a theory of capitalist patriarchy and socialist feminism”. In: Z. Eisenstein (ed.), Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, Monthly Review: New York, 1979

2. Barbara Ehrenreich, “Life without father: reconsidering socialist-feminist theory”. In: Karen V. Hansen and Ilene J. Philipson (eds). Women, Class and the Feminist Imagination: A Socialist-Feminist Reader, Temple Univ. Press: Philadelphia, 1990

3. Nancy Hartsock, “Feminist theory and the development of revolutionary strategy”. In: Z. Eisenstein (ed.), Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, Monthly Review: New York, 1979

4. Joan Smith, “Feminist analysis of gender: a mystique”. In: Ruth Hubbard and Marian Lowe (eds), Woman’s Nature, Pergamon, 1983

3. Marxist economic analysis

* Women’s work today and the new trends in the work force (1998) Helena Hirata

1. Women’s Lives in the New Global Economy, IIRE Notebook no. 22, Penny Duggan & Heather Dashner (eds), 1994. Introduction by Mariela Barbosa, Heather Dashner, Penny Duggan, Carol McAllister and Eva Nikell

2. Helena Hirata, “Gender and international labour relations” and Gisela Notz, “The globalisation or feminisation of work”, from Gender in Trade Union Work, Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 1998

3. 14th World Congress of the Fourth International, “Confronting capitalist globalization” (June 1995). In: International Viewpoint, 1996

* Women and changes in international economy today (1997) Maxime Durand

1. Women’s Lives in the New Global Economy, IIRE Notebook no. 22, Penny Duggan & Heather Dashner (eds), 1994. Introduction by Mariela Barbosa, Heather Dashner, Penny Duggan, Carol McAllister and Eva Nikell

2. “Women in the European Union: the persistence of inequality”. In: International Viewpoint Special on Europe, no. 290, 1997

3. 14th World Congress of the Fourth International, “Confronting capitalist globalization” (June 1995). In: International Viewpoint, 1996

* Women’s work today and new trends in the workforce (1997) Susan Caldwell

1. Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Crown Publishers: New York, 1991. Chapter 13: “The wages of the backlash”

4. The nature and role of the state

* Social policies: the state and women’s demands (1998) / (1997) Tatau Godinho

1. FI 13th World Congress, “Dynamics and convergence of mass movements and feminist currents”

2. FI 13th World Congress, “The changing forms of the struggle for women’s liberation”

3. Swasti Mitter, “On organising women in casualised work: a global overview”. In: Sheila Rowbotham and Swasti Mitter (ed.). Dignity and daily bread, London: Routledge, 1994

4. Excerpts from Vandana Shiva, “Gender, environment and sustainable development”. In: Women Linking for Change: Gender, Environment and Sustainable Development, Thailand

5. Excerpts from Elizabeth Uy Eviota, The Political Economy of Gender: Women and the Sexual Division of Labour in the Philippines, London: Zed Books, 1992

6. Maxime Durand, “Public services: confronting the neoliberal offensive”. Text to prepare the Jan. 1997 IEC of the Fourth International

7. Excerpts from Margaret C. Snyder & Mary Tadesse, African Women and Development: A History, London: Zed Books, 1995

8. Excerpts from Rebecka Lettevall and Lotta Wendel, “Hot potatoes from Sweden: the dismantlement of the Swedish welfare model”. In: Lola Press no. 6, Nov. 1996- Apr. 1997

9. Helena Bonumá, “Feminism PT style”. In: International Viewpoint no. 282, Nov. 1996

10. Excerpts from Sonia Alvarez, Engendering Democracy in Brazil: The Women’s Movement in Politics, Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1990

* NGOs and problems in building the women’s movement (1998) Estela Retamoso

1. FI 13th World Congress, “Resolution on women in Latin America: Dynamics and convergence of mass movements and feminist currents”.

2. FI 13th World Congress, “Resolution on women in Western Europe/North America: the changing forms of the struggle for women’s liberation”. In: International Marxist Review no. 11/12 (summer 1991)

3. Excerpts from Sheila Rowbotham, “Introduction”, and Monica Threlfall, “Conclusion”. In: Monica Threlfall (ed.) Mapping the Women’s Movement: Feminist Politics and Social Transformation in the North, London: Verso, 1996.

4. Excerpts from Virginia Vargas, Paper presented at the ISS

5. Penny Duggan (interviewer), “Migration and prostitution”. In International Viewpoint no. 278, June 1996

6. Tamara Braam, “Gendered poverty”. In: International Viewpoint no. 301, June 1998

7. Excerpts from Maria Mies & Vandana Siva, Ecofeminism, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1993

8. Excerpts from Maxine Molyneux & Deborah Steinberg, “Mies and Shiva Ecofeminsm: a new testament?”. In: Feminist Review no. 49, spring 1995

5. Oppression and the sexual division of labour

* The concept of gender (1998) Josette Trat

1. Joan Scott, “Gender: a useful category of historical analysis”, from Gender and the Politics of History, New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1988

2. Helena Hirata and Danièle Kergoat, “The working class has two sexes”, translated from Politis la Revue no. 4, July-Sept. 1993

* The backlash on women’s issues: abortion, right to work, socialization of maternal responsibilities (1997) Nancy Herzig

1. Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Crown Publishers: New York, 1991. Chapter 3: “Backlashes then and now”

2. Rafael Bernabe, “Raschke, his allies and the New Right”. Translated from Claridad, 1996

6. Social and Political functions of the family

* Role of the family and the family today (1998) Wally Seccombe

1. Wally Seccombe, 1998, Historical Perspectives on “the Crisis of the Family

2. Wally Seccombe, 1998, Deregulating Capital, Destabilizing Families

7. Feminist analysis

* Equality and difference and its implications for feminist thought (1998) / (1997) Lidia Cirillo

1. Lidia Cirillo, “We are better off orphans”. Translated from: “Mejor Huerfanas”, Viento Sur no.14, Apr. 1994.

2. Josette Trat, “On the question of sexual difference”. In: International Marxist Review no. 14, winter 1992.

3. Michèle Barrett, “The concept of difference”. In: Feminist Review no. 26, summer 1987.

4. Lidia Cirillo, “The debate within feminism”. In: International Viewpoint no. 300, May 1998.

5. Teresa de Lauretis, “The essence of the triangle or, Taking the risk of essentialism seriously: feminist theory in Italy, the U.S., and Britain”. In: Differences vol. 1 no. 3, summer 1989

* Equality and difference: political organizational implications for the Women’s Movement (1998) Lidia Cirillo

* Feminism or post-feminism. Recent debates in feminism (1997) Luisa Posada

1. Carole Pateman, “Feminist critiques of the public/private dichotomy”. In: The Disorders of Women: Democracy, Feminism and Political Theory, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1989

2. “The old problem of abortion” and “Decriminalization, a proposal which was not heeded”. In: Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective, Sexual Difference: A Theory of Social-Symbolic Practice, Indiana Univ. Press, 1990, Chapter 2

3. Selma James, “Introduction” (1972, from Mariarosa Dalla Costa & Selma James, The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community)

4. From Juliet Mitchell, Women’s Estate (166-71)

5. Jane Kelly, “Postmodernism and feminism” (from International Marxist Review no. 14, winter 1992)

6. V. Goran Therborn - Dialectics of modernity: on Critical Theory and the legacy of Twentieth Century Marxism. New Left Review n.215, 1966

* Currents within feminism

8. Class, race and gender

II. Issues around which women organise

1. Reproductive Rights

* Reproductive rights and the right to abortion (1998) Nancy Herzig and Penny Duggan

1. Linda Gordon, “The struggle for reproductive freedom: three stages of feminism”. In: Zillah R. Eisenstein (ed.), Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, 1979

2. José G. Pérez, “Why marxists champion abortion rights”. In: Abortion Is a Woman’s Right, New York: Pathfinder, 1985

3. Betsy Hartmann, “A womb of one’s own”. In: Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control and Contraceptive Choice, 1987

* The experience of the World Global Network for Reproductive Rights (1998) Martha de la Fuente

* Reproductive rights and women’s self-determination (1997) Martha de la Fuente

2. Sexuality

* Sexuality (1998) / (1997) Nancy Herzig

1. Raquel Osborne, “Sexuality as a dividing issue” and “Sexuality as a point of unity”. Translated from Las mujeres en la encrucijada de la sexualidad: Una aproximación desde el feminismo, Barcelona, 1989

2. Nancy Herzig, “The new orthodoxy: women and sex”. In: International Viewpoint no. 298, Mar. 1998

3. Peter Drucker, “In the Tropics There Is No Sin”: Sexuality and Gay/Lesbian Movements in the Third World (IIRE Working Paper no. 31, 1994)

4. Nancy Herzig & Rafael Bernabe, “Pornography, censorship, sexuality”. In: Against the Current, Mar./Apr. 1997

* Gay and lesbian movement (1998) Anke Hintjens

* Themes on sexuality (1997) Anke Hintjens

3. Violence Against Women

* Sexist and sexual violence (1998) Estela Retamoso

1. Heather Dashner, “Rape: punishment or solution?”. Translated from: Barricada, Sept.-Oct. 1984

2. From: Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 1975

3. Govind Kelkar, “Violence against women: an understanding of responsibility for their lives”

4. CORIAC, “Sin violencia/violencia” (exists only in Castilian)

5. London Rape Crisis Centre, “Sexual harassment at work”. In: Sexual Violence: The Reality for Women, Women’s Press, 1984

* Sexist and sexual violence (1997) Shelley Anderson, Libia Cajamarca & Maya Valecha

1. Heather Dashner, “Rape: punishment or solution?”. Translated from: Barricada, Sept.-Oct. 1984

2. From: Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 1975

3. Govind Kelkar, “Violence against women: an understanding of responsibility for their lives”

4. From: Nandita Gandhi & Nandita Shah, The Issues at Stake: Theory and Practice in the Contemporary Women’s Movement in India, Kali for Women, 1992

5. Carole Vance, “Pleasure and danger: toward a politics of sexuality”. In: Carole Vance (ed.), Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, Pandora Press, 1989

6. Claire Bataille, “Rape and ethnic cleansing”. In: International Viewpoint no. 243, March 1993

7. “Violence against women” (Jordan)

8. CORIAC, “Sin violencia/violencia”. (exists only in Castilian)

9. “Sexual harassment at work”. In: London Rape Crisis Center, Sexual Violence: The Reality for Women, Women’s Press, 1984

4. Trade Unions

* Organising women workers at workplace and trade unions (1998) Elsa van der Heiden

1. FI 13th World Congress, “Resolution on women in Western Europe/North America: the changing forms of the struggle for women’s liberation”

2. Heidi Hartmann, “Capitalism, patriarchy, and job segregation by sex”. In: Zillah R. Eisenstein ed., Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, New York: Monthly Review, 1979

III. History / Regional Issues and Cases

1. History of the women’s movement and women’s struggle

* History of the women’s movement and women’s struggle (1998) Eleni Varikis

1. Sheila Rowbotham, Women, Resistance and Revolution, Middlesex: Pelican Books, 1975. Chapter 2: “Utopian proposals” & Chapter 5: “Bread and roses”

2. Flora Tristan, “Why I mention women”, from Workers’ Union, 1844

3. Barbara Taylor, Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth Century, London: Virago Press, 1983. Chapter 4: “Then men are as bad as their masters....”

* History of the women’s movement and women’s struggle (1997) Penny Duggan

1. Richard Evans. Womens’s Emancipation Movements in Europe, America and Australia, Croom Helm: London & Sydney, 1977. Chapter 4: “Militants and conservatives”.

2. Mary-Alice Waters, Feminism and the Marxist Movement, Pathfinder Press: New York, 1972. Extracts from pp. 10 -31.

2. Regional Issues and Cases

* Women and Fundamentalism (1998) Terry Conway

1. Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, “The rise of the new right”. In: Abortion and Woman’s Choice: The State, Sexuality and Reproductive Freedom, 1985

2. Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess & Gloria Jacobs, “Fundamentalist sex: hitting below the Bible Belt”. In: Re-making Love: The Feminization of Sex, 1986

3. Rafael Bernabe, “Raschke, his allies and the New Right”. Translated from Claridad, 1996

4. Azar Tabari, “Islam and the struggle for emancipation of Iranian women”, and Haleh Afshar, “Khomeini’s teachings and their implications for Iranian women”. In: Azar Tabari & Nahid Yeganeh (eds.), In the Shadow of Islam: The Women’s Movement in Iran, London: Zed Press, 1982

* Women and Islamic Fundamentalism (1997) Salah Jaber

1. Azar Tabari, “Islam and the struggle for emancipation of Iranian women”, and Haleh Afshar, “Khomeini’s teachings and their implications for Iranian women”. In: Azar Tabari & Nahid Yeganeh (eds.), In the Shadow of Islam: The Women’s Movement in Iran, London: Zed Press, 1982

2. Suad B., “Islamic fundamentalists and immigrant communities in France”. In: International Viewpoint no. 264, Mar. 1995

3. Salah Jaber, “The present resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism”. In: International Marxist Review vol. 2 no. 3, summer 1987

* Challenges in building the women’s movement today: the case of France (1997) Josette Trat

1. Josette Trat, “Autumn 1995: a social storm blows over France”. In: Social Politics, Univ. of Illinois, summer/fall 1996

* Women in East Europe (1998) Jacqueline Heinen

1. Jacqueline Heinen, “Church, State and women’s right to abortion”. In: International Viewpoint no. 180, 12 March 1990

2. Maxine Molyneux, “Women’s rights and the international context in the post-Communist states”. In: Monica Threlfall ed., Mapping the Women’s Movement, London: Verso, 1996

IV. Strategy, Building the Movement, and Party Building

1. Autonomous women’s movement

* Strategic role of the autonomous women’s movement and the movement today (1997) Tatau Godinho

1. Excerpts from Sheila Rowbotham, “Introduction”, and Monica Threlfall, “Conclusion”. In: Monica Threlfall (ed.) Mapping the Women’s Movement: Feminist Politics and Social Transformation in the North, London: Verso, 1996

2. Excerpts from Virginia Vargas, Paper presented at the ISS

3. Penny Duggan (interviewer), “Migration and prostitution”. In International Viewpoint no. 278, June 1996

4. Jean Dupont, “Confrontation at Latin American feminist meeting”. In: International Viewpoint no. 284, Jan. 1997

5. Excerpts from Sonia Alvarez, “(Trans)formation of feminism(s) in Brazil”. In: Jane S. Jaquette, The Women’s Movement in Latin America: Participation and Democracy, Boulder: Westview Press, 1994

6. Excerpts from Maria Mies & Vandana Siva, Ecofeminism, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1993

7. Excerpts from Maxine Molyneux & Deborah Steinberg, “Mies and Shiva Ecofeminsm: a new testament?”. In: Feminist Review no. 49, spring 1995

8. Articles about: the Sao Paulo Forum, South Africa, Canada and the Philippines. In: International Viewpoint

9. FI, “Socialist revolution and the struggle for women’s liberation”. In: 1979 World Congress of the Fourth International: Major Resolutions

2. Building feminist parties

* Building feminist parties (1998) / (1997) Penny Duggan

1. Penny Duggan, The Feminist Challenge to Traditional Political Organizing, IIRE Working Paper no.33, Jan. 1997

2. Four extracts from Ernest Mandel, The Leninist Theory of Organization, London: IMG, 1975

3. Extract from Jo Freeman, “The tyranny of structurelessness”. In: Ms. Magazine, 1973

4. Extract from FI 13th World Congress, “Resolution on positive action”. In: International Discussion Bulletin no. 1, 1991

5. Extract from the Code of Conduct of the ICS (Indian section of the FI)

6. Tatau Godinho, “Women in the leadership”. Translated from: Teoria y Debate, Apr.-June 1991

7. PRT, “Sanctions policy in a feminist party”. Translated from: Bandiera Socialista no. 402, Dec. 1989

8. Philomène, “Report from Japan commission”. In: Minutes of the FI 13th World Congress, 1991