The Relationship Between Class and Class Consciousness In Germany men were granted universal suffrage in 1871, while it took until 1919 for women to gain universal suffrage rights. Women were stuck in the shadow of the patriarchy and struggled to earn their suffrage. This political disenfranchisement applied to all women; the case that Rosa Luxemburg makes in her essays “Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle” and “The Proletariat Woman” is that even though women have the same biological classifications, their class distinction characterizes whether they would be motivated to fight for their suffrage and change existing political institutions. Luxemburg has a unique manner in which she presents her theories, some of those theories have been supported
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Luxemburg argues that because “the women of the proletariat are economically independent” (Luxemburg, 241), they deserve the same rights as proletariat men who also contribute to the capitalist system. Therefore, this puts proletariat men and women on the same level of economic contribution, with their only distinction between them being their gender. Rosa is proclaiming that because the proletariat women contribute equally to the capitalist society, they deserve equal rights. The reason why it has been such a struggle for women to gain suffrage is because, “our state is interested in keeping the vote from working women and from them alone. It rightly fears they will threaten the traditional institutions of class rule” (Luxemburg, 240). Apparently men seeing women with political power is extremely unsettling and has swayed them to resist inclusiveness in political …show more content…
Although with the rise in working class women this definition of home has shifted, “For the property-owning bourgeois woman, her house is the world. For the proletariat woman, the whole world is her house” (“The Proletarian Woman,” 243). This comment from Luxemburg notes at one of the biggest distinctions between bourgeois and proletariat women. Bourgeois women are stuck in a bourgeois bubble; for example, they may serve as mediators and facilitators during social events and interacts with the “outside world,” but no one expects them to work. This lack of exposure to the outside world leaves no room for bourgeois women to have a class consciousness. While the proletariat women have a sense of class consciousness, because they have the liberation to be politically involved and active in the outside world. This bubble that bourgeois women live in is due to them being the “co-consumers of the surplus value their men extort from the proletariat” (Luxemburg, 240). Bourgeois women live very comfortable lives with little incentive to change their
Luxemburg argues that because “the women of the proletariat are economically independent” (Luxemburg, 241), they deserve the same rights as proletariat men who also contribute to the capitalist system. Therefore, this puts proletariat men and women on the same level of economic contribution, with their only distinction between them being their gender. Rosa is proclaiming that because the proletariat women contribute equally to the capitalist society, they deserve equal rights. The reason why it has been such a struggle for women to gain suffrage is because, “our state is interested in keeping the vote from working women and from them alone. It rightly fears they will threaten the traditional institutions of class rule” (Luxemburg, 240). Apparently men seeing women with political power is extremely unsettling and has swayed them to resist inclusiveness in political …show more content…
Although with the rise in working class women this definition of home has shifted, “For the property-owning bourgeois woman, her house is the world. For the proletariat woman, the whole world is her house” (“The Proletarian Woman,” 243). This comment from Luxemburg notes at one of the biggest distinctions between bourgeois and proletariat women. Bourgeois women are stuck in a bourgeois bubble; for example, they may serve as mediators and facilitators during social events and interacts with the “outside world,” but no one expects them to work. This lack of exposure to the outside world leaves no room for bourgeois women to have a class consciousness. While the proletariat women have a sense of class consciousness, because they have the liberation to be politically involved and active in the outside world. This bubble that bourgeois women live in is due to them being the “co-consumers of the surplus value their men extort from the proletariat” (Luxemburg, 240). Bourgeois women live very comfortable lives with little incentive to change their