Research On Sheila Rowbotham’s Thought Of Women’s Liberation

Sheila Rowbotham,born in 1943,is a British feminist scholar and a British Marxist historian.Rowbotham is an indispensable figure in the study of British Marxist new historicism and feminism.The systematic expounding of Rowbotham’s thoughts on women’s liberation is a necessary content for the study of British new historicism and one of the topics in the study of Marxist feminism Righteousness.The article starts from exploring Rowbotham’s theoretical sources,and launches research on the basic content of Rowbotham’s Marxist women’s liberation theory.First,Rowbotham fully absorbed the theories of feminist scholars such as Beauvoir,Juliet Mitchell,and Heidi Hartman,and put forward his own ideas on the concept of "patriarchy" and the root causes of women’s oppression.the opinion of.Secondly,Rowbotham traced the utopian socialist thoughts on women’s liberation,Marx and Engels’ thoughts on women’s liberation,and inspected the historical background of the two theories,based on the scientific methodology of Marxism and the socialist revolution,Carried out in-depth and rich theoretical expansion.Finally,Rowbotham inherited and developed the empirical tradition and "bottom-up" historical outlook of the British neo-historical school,with the intention of constructing a theory of women’s emancipation in a historical context.Rowbotham’s thoughts on women’s emancipation can be roughly divided into two dimensions,namely,the source of women’s oppression and the way to achieve women’s emancipation.Rowbotham’s research on the root causes of women’s oppression focuses on criticizing female housework and social work under capitalism,and the patriarchal culture as the main content.Rowbotham distinguished the dominant mode of capitalist commodity production from the "ready-to-use" family production mode in order to criticize the family under capitalism;and believed that the "women’s work" under capitalism was a falsehood Concept,because while women participate in social labor,they also need to undertake housework,and they are still in aposition to be oppressed and exploited by patriarchy and capitalism in terms of job position and salary.Rowbotham also criticized the concept of "patriarchy" It has metaphysical universality,thinking that it cannot explain the fact that the relationship between men and women has changed in history,trying to establish a "Sex and Gender" perspective in the historical context,thinking and positioning the thoughts and actions of individual women in a specific historical environment.Rowbotham focuses on contraceptive technology,political conditions,and cultural environment as the main direction to carry out research on the ways of women’s emancipation.Rowbotham pointed out that the realization of contraceptive technology is the prerequisite for female sexual liberation,but contraceptive technology under capitalism is still the same.This kind of commodity cannot fundamentally achieve female sexual liberation.The women’s liberation movement with working-class women as the main body is the political guarantee for women’s liberation,and the struggle against the patriarchal culture launched before the revolution is the cultural guarantee for women’s liberation.She hopes to establish a "female-centered" value and prepare for the political revolution at the cultural level.The personal consciousness based on objective historical conditions is the key point that Rowbotham emphasized.She tried to open the door to women’s liberation through the realization of "personal is politics" based on this common sense of oppression of women.Rowbotham’s thought on women’s emancipation is the inheritance and redevelopment of Marxist thought on women’s emancipation.Through the investigation of the historical perspective of women’s issues,coupled with the construction of historical materialism methodology,his theory has distinct personal characteristics and practical significance.It is of reference significance for the equality of socialist women in our country.