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Assignment 02

Silvia Federici has a chapter dedicated to show how women were oppressed through political and economic conditions during the 1500s and onward called, “The Accumulation of Labor and Degradation of Women”. She specifically mentions how land privatization developed a social hierarchy, which women were often the victims of. Often the land privatization led to slavery and capitalism. Federici was able to defend these points by using certain events that occurred during that time period and these events are related to “the degradation of women”.

Federici paraphrases Alice Clark’s statement of how women’s social life were during pre-capitalist and it showed how women really did not have much social power or a place where their opinion mattered besides the commons. The commons was a very popular place in the peasant community. It was filled with festivals, games, and gatherings, and it became a social function even for women. Alice Clark discusses that the commons was the center of their social life because it was the one place where their voice would be heard and people actually cared (Clark 1968:51, Federici 2004:81). Federici even mentions during the 16th and 17th century, merchant capitalists would take advantage of cheap labor that could be found in rural areas in Europe. Products were often produced at the lowest costs. These industries that could be allowed this kind of unusual economy was only made possible on the labor of women and children (Federici 2004:81). Women were often taken advantage of in the economy and it was easy to do so because they had no social power.

Federici was able to show that women were being oppressed for such a long time by even going back to feudal Europe. Women especially during that time could not do anything but work because not only were they lacking social power but economic as well. They mostly did not have money which meant no social power, which made them suffer through oppression.