ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the gender and feminism to understand the relationship between the sexes as one of inequality, subordination, oppression and difference. Marxist feminists however, argue that gender inequality derives from capitalism, where men's domination of women is a by-product of capital's domination over labour. Class relations are the most important features of the social structure which determine gender relations. The chapter explores the intersection of ethnicity and gender may alter ethnic and gender relations themselves, by the particular ways in which ethnic and gender relations have interacted historically. Marxist feminists have been criticised for being too narrowly focused on capitalism and being unable to deal with gender relations in non-capitalist societies and for reducing gender inequality to capitalism. In contemporary feminism the concept of patriarchy has received considerable attention and has been analysed as a system which oppresses women.
