Essay Sample on Marxist Feminism in Kollontai's 'Sisters'

Introduction

Kollontai's 'Sisters' is a short story set in the 1920s Russia. The story, which is a narration of a true story, gives us a glimpse of feminism and especially Marxist feminism and hence an opportunity to critic Karl Max's view of the sale and purchase of labor. In the story, a woman is confiding in Kollontai at a delegate's conference. The main character of the story is a woman who has just left her husband and is afraid that she may end up in prostitution since she has nowhere else to go. The woman has been having a hard time in her relationship with her husband and their marriage was finally broken. The events in her marriage that finally lead to a break up bring out key points on feminism and Marxism. The presentation of her attitudes towards feminine labor, her husband's attitude, and the status of the prostitutes in the story gives us an idea of the place of a woman in the labor market, in the then Russia. Though the story is set in Russia, a communist country, we are able to see the effect of the ownership of the factors of production and their effect on labor market as described by Karl Marx.

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Several women in the story enable us to see the place of a woman as perceived by the characters in the story. The first woman is the main character of the story. The woman is desperate to get a job but her husband is against the idea. The husband prefers her to be a home wife. Through the woman's narration, she reveals to us that were it not for her marriage, she would probably find herself in prostitution. As she remarks after her deep conversation with the second prostitute, '...For it struck me, as she was telling her story, that only my husband's income had saved me, up to this time, from a similar situation'. The woman's state of despair in the labor market shows that woman labor was not desirable in the 1920s Russia. When they start experiencing troubles in their marriage, the husband is depressed. The husband handles his depression by bring prostitutes to their home. The woman tries to save their marriage by sending the prostitutes away. Nevertheless, her interactions with the second prostitute and the revealing of the prostitute's life gives a deeper insight into the state of woman labor. The prostitute is learned but she has not been able to secure her place in the labor market. Karl Marx describes labor as a commodity which is distinct from the provider. Nevertheless, it is different in Kollontai's 'Sisters'. Though the second prostitute is well educated, she is not able to sell her labor in the job market. In other words, she cannot sell her labor in the market as a commodity as Karl Marx argues. The other woman in the story is Kollontai, she is confided into at a conference, meaning that the troubles in the labor market were widespread and that a revolution was inevitable.

Nevertheless, the portrayal of labor in 'Sisters' shows some similarities to Karl Marx's ideologies. The short story brings out Karl Marx's conclusion that capitalism is not natural. As Marx believes, the economic system we have is deeply rooted in social institutions. The economic system of any given nation depends on the social structures of the nation work (Cohen, 338). In Kollontai's story, the social structures of that particular society only supported men to work (Jinee, 1408). For instance, when she is unable to secure a job, the woman consoles herself by thinking that she had a husband who worked through the question, '...Was not my husband a well-paid official?' The attitude of women getting employed is brought out in the husband's view of how a wife is supposed to be. The woman character telling the story was not in good terms with her husband. While she wanted to go to work and make money, her husband thought that she should stay at home. The woman's husband clearly brings out men's attitude towards women working. Furthermore, the attitude towards women in the labor market is also brought out when the woman interacts with the second prostitute. We all learn that the second prostitute was a very educated woman. However, she lives in poverty after losing her job after a reduction of labor was put into effect at her place of work. In fact, she ends up in prostitution since she does not have any other way to make ends meet (Jinee, 1410).

Another aspect of Karl Marx's sale and purchase of labor theory is the labor-power concept. Throughout the various occupations of the characters in the story, we conclude that the money that the laborers receive is just the sufficient amount to sustain their lives. Let's get back to Karl Marx's ideology. Marx classifies human labor as a commodity. In this case, a laborer has to be willing to sell their labor at the market and there has to be a willing buyer work (Cohen, 354). As Marx puts it, the laborer allows his labor to be at the disposal of the willing buyer since it is like a commodity once he agrees to sell their labor. Nevertheless, labor-power has to satisfy certain social conditions for it to qualify as a commodity in the market work (Cohen, 357). In our case, men and women alike have their own unique labor markets as defined by the social-cultural setting in the story. In the particular social setting of the story, the woman and the second prostitute are willing to sell their labor at the market. However, there seems to be no willing buyers and the woman in the story remains dependent on her husbands while the second woman does prostitution for survival. The concept of the lack of market for women's labor is well brought out by the second prostitute. Despite of her being well educated, she is unable to secure a place in the labor market (Jinee, 1412). As a result, she ends up in prostitution. Moreover, the story of the woman and her husband further shows that the society in which they lived in was not accommodative of human labor. In other words, women labor in the society discussed in the short story does not satisfy the set social conditions at the time.

The socio-economic revolution of any country over years determines the sale and purchase of labor in that particular country work (Cohen, 360). For instance, each country has its own property laws which determine how property is distributed across all the social classes and also across gender lines. Similarly, other related laws determine the accessibility of the factors of production. What makes people sell their labor is their inability to access factors of production. A laborer does not have the ability to acquire the necessary factors of production through which they can exercise their labor and claim the product of their labor as their own. In other words, the products of a worker's labor belongs to the owner of the factors of production, the employer. In the context of the story, the world is male dominated. The women in the story do not have access to the factors of production. The women characters in the story are forced to survive through unhealthy means such as engaging in prostitution and depending on marriages (Jinee, 1412). Through the second prostitute and the main woman character's desire to work, we learn that women in the society do not have a means through which they can produce or sell their labor in the labor market. As a matter of fact, the women characters are forced by their situation to be sex works. Through their sex services, the women are exploited by their clients. Marx states that the value of labor is the power needed to sustain that labor. This exactly what we see in the sex workers. They get low pays from their clients. In short, the women only get what is enough to enable them sustain their lives. That is the reason why they live so desperately.

Conclusion

Lastly, Marx's ideology that the current state of the sale and purchase of labor market is closely tied to social and economic revolutions is well brought out. Kollontai's story brings this out by telling the story through the main woman character confiding to someone at a delegate's conference. Through the use of the story within a story technique, we are made to conclude that the main woman character had finally resolved that her society needed a socio-economic revolution. The woman had been motivated to fight for women's right after interacting with the second prostitute and realizing that they suffered the same fate due to the societal organization of Russia at that time. In her interaction with the second prostitute, the narrator calms down after resolving that it was the societal organization of 1920s Russia that was to blame for their suffering. She does not, therefore, take on the second prostitute for making her marriage miserable. Instead, she gets radicalized and her change of mind is shown on how her love for her husband suddenly dies and how she befriends the woman who apparently contributed to the fall of her marriage. In conclusion, Kollontai's 'sisters' succeeds in not only showing us the need for feminism, but also giving us a better understanding of the labor sale and purchase market as described by Karl Marx.

Work Cited

Cohen, Gerald A. "The labor theory of value and the concept of exploitation." Philosophy & Public Affairs (1979): 338-360.

Lokaneeta, Jinee. "Alexandra Kollontai and Marxist Feminism." Economic and Political Weekly (2001): 1405-1412.