ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues for the applicability of a materialist mode of production analysis to the situation of women in Africa. It reviews some of the intellectual background and theoretical dilemmas of marxism-feminism. The feminist challenge to marxism arose from complex roots. Not only had especially oppressive forms of patriarchy flourished in precapitalist societies; the situation in many contemporary socialist societies indicated that the abolition of capitalism would not necessarily lead to patriarchy's demise. In Maureen Mackintosh's oftquoted words, "the characteristic relation of human reproduction is patriarchy, that is, the control of women, especially of their sexuality and fertility, by men". Women's class position must be understood in terms of the institution of marriage, which is in fact a labor contract constituting a domestic mode of production and a patriarchal mode of exploitation.
