ABSTRACT
The power of the Marxian critique of class domination stands as an implicit suggestion that feminists should consider the advantages of adopting a historical materialist approach to understanding phallocratic domination. A feminist materialism might in addition enable us to expand the Marxian account to include all human activity rather than focusing on activity more characteristic of males in capitalism. This chapter explores the Marxian argument that socially mediated interaction with nature in the process of production shapes both human beings and theories of knowledge. It discusses the "sexual division of labor" rather than the "gender division of labor" to stress, first the belief that the division of labor between women and men cannot be reduced to purely social dimensions. The feminist standpoint which emerges through an examination of women's activities is related to the proletarian standpoint. Women's activity as institutionalized has a double aspect — their contribution to subsistence, and their contribution to childrearing.
