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Woman and Socialism: The Socialization of Society.

Woman and Socialism
The Socialization of Society.

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Notes

table of contents
  1. WOMAN AND SOCIALISM
  2. Contents
  3. Introduction.
  4. Woman in the Past.
    1. CHAPTER I. The Position of Woman in Primeval Society.
      1. 1.—Chief Epochs of Primeval History.
      2. 2.—Family Forms.
      3. 3.—The Matriarchate.
    2. CHAPTER II. Conflict between Matriarchate and Patriarchate.
      1. 1.—Rise of the Patriarchate.
      2. 2.—Traces of the Matriarchate in Greek Myths and Dramas.
      3. 3.—Legitimate Wives and Courtesans in Athens.
      4. 4.—Remnants of the Matriarchate in the Customs of Various Nations.
      5. 5.—Rise of the State.—Dissolution of the Gens in Rome.
    3. CHAPTER III. Christianity.
    4. CHAPTER IV. Woman in the Mediaeval Age.
      1. 1.—The Position of Women among the Germans.
      2. 2.—Feudalism and the Right of the First Night.
      3. 3.—The Rise of Cities.—Monastic Affairs.—Prostitution.
      4. 4.—Knighthood and the Veneration of Women.
    5. CHAPTER V. The Reformation.
      1. 1.—Luther.
      2. 2.—Results of the Reformation.—The Thirty Years’ War.
    6. CHAPTER VI. The Eighteenth Century.
      1. 1.—Court Life in Germany.
      2. 2.—Commercialism and the New Marriage Laws.
      3. 3.—The French Revolution and the Rise of Industry.
  5. Woman at the Present Day.
    1. CHAPTER VII. Woman as a Sex Being.
      1. 1.—The Sexual Impulse.
      2. 2.—Celibacy and the Frequency of Suicide.
    2. CHAPTER VIII. Modern Marriage.
      1. 1.—Marriage as a Profession.
      2. 2.—Decline of the Birthrate.
      3. 3.—Mercenary Marriage and the Matrimonial Market.
    3. CHAPTER IX. Disruption of the Family.
      1. 1.—Increase of Divorce.
      2. 2.—Bourgeois and Proletarian Marriage.
    4. CHAPTER X. Marriage as a Means of Support.
      1. 1.—Decline of the Marriage Rate.
      2. 2.—Infanticide and Abortion.
      3. 3.—Education for Marriage.
      4. 4.—The Misery of Present Day Marriages.
    5. CHAPTER XI. The Chances of Matrimony.
      1. 1.—The Numerical Proportion of the Sexes.
      2. 2.—Obstacles to Marriage.—The Excess of Women.
    6. CHAPTER XII. Prostitution a Necessary Social Institution of Bourgeois Society.
      1. 1.—Prostitution and Society.
      2. 2.—Prostitution and the State.
      3. 3.—The White Slave Trade.
      4. 4.—The Increase of Prostitution.—Illegitimate Motherhood.
      5. 5.—Crimes Against Morality and Sexual Diseases.
    7. CHAPTER XIII. Woman in Industry.
      1. 1.—Development and Extension of Female Labor.
      2. 2.—Factory Work of Married Women.—Sweatshop Labor and Dangerous Occupations.
    8. CHAPTER XIV. The Struggle of Women for Education.
      1. 1.—The Revolution in Domestic Life.
      2. 2.—The Intellectual Abilities of Women.
      3. 3.—Differences in Physical and Mental Qualities of Man and Woman.
      4. 4.—Darwinism and the Condition of Society.
      5. 5.—Woman and the Learned Professions.
    9. CHAPTER XV. The Legal Status of Women.
      1. 1.—The Struggle for Equality Before the Law.
      2. 2.—The Struggle for Political Equality.
  6. The State and Society.
    1. CHAPTER XVI. The Class-State and the Modern Proletariat.
      1. 1.—Our Public Life.
      2. 2.—Aggravation of Social Extremes.
    2. CHAPTER XVII. The Process of Concentration in Capitalistic Industry.
      1. 1.—The Displacement of Agriculture by Industry.
      2. 2.—Increasing Pauperization.—Preponderance of Large Industrial Establishments.
      3. 3.—Concentration of Wealth.
    3. CHAPTER XVIII. Crisis and Competition.
      1. 1.—Causes and Effects of the Crises.
      2. 2.—Intermediate Trade and the Increased Cost of Living.
    4. CHAPTER XIX. The Revolution in Agriculture.
      1. 1.—Transatlantic Competition and Desertion of the Country.
      2. 2.—Peasants and Great Landowners.
      3. 3.—The Contrast Between City and Country.
  7. The Socialization of Society.
    1. CHAPTER XX. The Social Revolution.
      1. 1.—The Transformation of Society.
      2. 2.—Expropriation of the Expropriators.
    2. CHAPTER XXI. Fundamental Laws of Socialistic Society.
      1. 1.—Duty to Work of All Able-bodied Persons.
      2. 2.—Harmony of Interests.
      3. 3.—Organization of Labor.
      4. 4.—The Growth of the Productivity of Labor.
      5. 5.—Removal of the Contrast between Mental and Manual Work.
      6. 6.—Increase of Consumption.
      7. 7.—Equal Duty to Work for All.
      8. 8.—Abolition of Trade.—Transformation of Traffic.
    3. CHAPTER XXII. Socialism and Agriculture.
      1. 1.—Abolition of the Private Ownership of Land.
      2. 2.—The Amelioration of Land.
      3. 3.—Changed Methods of Farming.
      4. 4.—Agriculture on a Large and Small Scale.—Electric Appliances.
      5. 5.—Vine-Culture of the Future.
      6. 6.—Measures to Prevent Exhaustion of the Soil.
      7. 7.—Removal of the Contrast between City and Country.
    4. CHAPTER XXIII. Abolition of the State.
    5. CHAPTER XXIV. The Future of Religion.
    6. CHAPTER XXV. The Socialist System of Education.
    7. CHAPTER XXVI. Literature and Art in Socialistic Society.
    8. CHAPTER XXVII. Free Development of Individuality.
      1. 1.—Freedom from Care.
      2. 2.—Changes in the Methods of Nutrition.
      3. 3.—The Communistic Kitchen.
      4. 4.—Transformation of Domestic Life.
    9. CHAPTER XXVIII. Woman in the Future.
    10. CHAPTER XXIX. Internationality.
    11. CHAPTER XXX. The Question of Population and Socialism.
      1. 1.—Fear of Over-Population.
      2. 2.—Production of Over-Population.
      3. 3.—Poverty and Fecundity.
      4. 4.—Lack of Human Beings and Abundance of Food.
      5. 5.—Social Conditions and Reproductive Ability.
  8. Conclusion.
  9. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

The Socialization of Society.
The Socialization of Society.

CHAPTER XX.
The Social Revolution.

1.—The Transformation of Society.

The tide rises and undermines the foundation of state and society. Every one feels that the pillars are swaying and that only powerful props can support them. But to erect such props means great sacrifices on the part of the ruling classes, and there the difficulty lies. Every proposition, the realization of which would seriously damage the material interests of the ruling classes and would threaten to question their privileged position, is bitterly opposed by them and roundly condemned as a measure destined to overturn the present order of state and society. But, without questioning and ultimately removing the privileges of the ruling classes, the diseased world cannot be cured.

“The struggle for the liberation of the working class is not a struggle for privileges, but one for equal rights and equal duties and for the removal of all privileges.” This declaration of principles is contained in the Socialist platform. It follows that nothing can be attained by half measures and small concessions.

But the ruling classes regard their privileged position as natural and self-understood; they will admit of no doubt in its permanence and justification. So it is quite natural that they oppose and combat every attempt to shatter their privileges. Even proposed measures and laws that do not change their privileged position and the present order of society in the least, cause the greatest excitement among them, if their purse-strings are loosened thereby or likely to be loosened. In the parliaments mountains of paper are printed with speeches until the laboring mountains bring forth a ridiculous mouse. The most self-understood demands of workingmen’s protection are met with as much opposition as if the existence of society depended upon it. When, after endless struggles, some concessions are won from the ruling classes, they act as if they had sacrificed a part of their fortune. They show the same stubborn opposition when called upon to recognize the oppressed classes on a basis of formal equality; for instance, to discuss questions of labor agreements with them as with their equals.

This opposition to the simplest things and the most self-understood demands confirms the old experience that no ruling class can ever be convinced by reason, unless the force of circumstances compels discretion and compliance. But the force of circumstances may be found in the growing measure of understanding created in the oppressed by the development of our conditions. The class extremes are constantly becoming more severe, more noticeable and more evident. The oppressed and exploited classes begin to recognize that existing conditions are untenable; their indignation increases, and with it the imperious demand to transform and humanize conditions. As this perception grows and reaches ever widening circles, it finally conquers the vast majority of society, which is most directly interested in this transformation. But to the same extent in which this perception of the untenableness of existing conditions and the need of their transformation grows among the masses, the power of resistance of the ruling classes declines, since their power is founded upon the ignorance and the lack of understanding of the oppressed and exploited classes. This reciprocal action is evident, and therefore everything that advances it must be welcomed. The progress of capitalism on the one hand is balanced on the other by the growing perception that the existing social order is adverse to the wellfare of the vast majority of the people. Although the solution and removal of social extremes will require great sacrifices and many exertions, a solution will be found as soon as the extremes have attained the height of their development, toward which they are rapidly advancing.

What measures are to be resorted to at the various stages of development, depends upon circumstances. It is impossible to predict what measures will be necessitated by circumstances in particular instances. No government, no prime-minister, be he the most powerful person, can predict what circumstances will compel him to do a year hence. It is all the more impossible to predict measures that will be dictated by circumstances unknown to us at present. The question of measures is a question of tactics to be observed in a struggle. The tactics are influenced by the opponent and also by the resources at the command of both parties. Means that are splendid to-day may be harmful to-morrow, because the circumstances that justified their employment may have changed. It is but necessary always to keep our aim before us; the means for attaining same depend upon time and circumstances. But the most effective means that time and circumstances permit of should be resorted to. In depicting future developments we must therefore resort to hypothetical methods; we must surmise certain conditions.

Proceeding from this point of view, we surmise that, at a given time, all the depicted evils will have developed to such extremes and will have become so evident and tangible to the great majority of the population, that they come to be regarded as unbearable; that a general, irresistible demand for a thoroughgoing transformation will manifest itself, and that, accordingly, the quickest help will be considered the most appropriate.

All social evils, without exception, spring from the present social order, which, as has been shown, is founded on capitalism, on the capitalistic method of production. This method of production enables the capitalist class—the owners of all the means of production, the ground, mines, raw materials, tools, machines, means of transportation—to exploit and oppress the masses, which leads to insecurity of existence and to the degradation of the exploited classes. Accordingly the most rapid and direct way would be to transform capitalistic property into common, or social property by a general expropriation. The production of commodities will be socialized; it will become a production for and by society. Manufacture on a large scale and the increasing productivity of social labor, until now a source of misery and oppression for the exploited classes, will then become a source of well-being and harmonious development for all.

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2.—Expropriation of the Expropriators.
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