Women’s Struggle Beyond Capitalist Reform

The Path to Women’s Liberation: Class Struggle, Not Capitalist Reform

Despite decades of activism, women around the world still face deep-rooted inequality. Gender wage gaps, safety concerns, and biases that favor men persist in both personal and professional spaces. For women, even simple acts like walking home alone can provoke anxiety, underscoring a reality of constant vigilance against harassment and discrimination. From enduring dismissive attitudes toward women’s health issues to shouldering most domestic responsibilities, inequality permeates every facet of life.

The structures upholding inequality are embedded within capitalist society, deeply ingrained in centuries of class-based hierarchies. Capitalism’s solutions — often focused on “girl boss” ideals that glorify individual achievement — fail to address the systemic roots of oppression. True progress for women has historically come not through individual victories within capitalism but through revolutionary efforts to remake society.

Among historical figures, no one’s impact on women’s liberation has been as transformative as Lenin’s. While some feminists dismiss Lenin as merely an “old white man,” the Russian Revolution, which he led, challenged class-based oppression in a way that opened up new horizons for women’s freedom. In one stroke, the October Revolution dismantled legal barriers that kept women subordinate to men, and for the first time, a societal framework was set to end inequality and oppression through collective, rather than individual, action.

Lessons from the Russian Revolution

In 1917, Russia’s deeply patriarchal society was shaken to its core by the Bolshevik-led revolution. Almost overnight, legal provisions that had positioned women as secondary citizens were abolished, and LGBTQ+ rights were recognized. For the first time, policies were enacted to protect women’s rights to divorce, abortion, and equal treatment in family law. These achievements were made possible through the collective efforts of a revolutionary society, demonstrating that genuine women’s emancipation can only be achieved by addressing the needs of all marginalized groups within a class-conscious framework.
The revolution’s ripple effects were felt worldwide, inspiring women globally to organize and demand similar rights. The Bolsheviks’ radical reforms stand as some of history’s most progressive steps toward gender equality. For instance, in the Soviet Union, Alexandra Kollontai became the world’s first female minister years before many Western nations appointed women to similar positions. Under Kollontai’s leadership, women received 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and protections for breastfeeding mothers — advances that far surpassed labor protections in many modern capitalist nations.
The Bolsheviks recognized that legal rights alone were insufficient. Genuine equality required dismantling economic structures that kept women trapped in unpaid household labor. Lenin argued that true freedom for women necessitated an end to private property and a shift to large-scale socialized domestic services like childcare, public kitchens, and laundry facilities. These services were not merely conveniences; they were critical in liberating women from “domestic slavery.”

Women’s Oppression: Rooted in Material Conditions

Lenin’s approach to women’s emancipation went beyond enacting laws; it sought to transform the material conditions that underpin gender inequality. Lenin’s vision for gender equity involved the collectivization of essential domestic services to ease the burdens traditionally placed on women. By addressing the material conditions that enforce domestic labor as women’s duty, Lenin laid the groundwork for a societal shift toward equality.
While capitalism has drawn more women into the workforce, it has failed to eliminate the “double burden” women carry. In many countries, women not only work outside the home but also perform most domestic tasks, leading to long-standing gender disparities in income, career advancement, and political engagement. Real progress, as Lenin argued, requires a societal commitment to reshaping the structures that perpetuate these inequalities.
Despite the Soviet Union’s limitations in fully realizing these ideals due to economic challenges and isolation, the early years of the revolution offered a glimpse of what true equality could look like. Even with scarce resources, the revolution brought women out of the household and into education, politics, and public life. Under Stalin, many of these gains were rolled back, but the advancements achieved under Lenin’s leadership remain unparalleled in their scale and scope.

Revolution as the Path to True Liberation

For Lenin, the liberation of women was inseparable from the revolutionary struggle. He argued that capitalism, by its nature, sustains gender and class hierarchies, and only a revolutionary reorganization of society can break these chains. This perspective stands in contrast to liberal feminism, which seeks change within the capitalist framework. Lenin’s approach emphasizes that while legal reforms are essential, they are limited in their ability to address the systemic roots of gender-based oppression.
Communists continue to fight for women’s rights as part of a larger movement to overthrow capitalism, understanding that individual legal victories within this system are insufficient. For Lenin, every incremental gain — from access to divorce to protection from workplace discrimination — serves as a tool to expose the limitations of capitalism and to mobilize support for the broader revolutionary cause.
True liberation demands more than just legislative change; it requires building a society rooted in equality and collective welfare. Capitalism, Lenin argued, makes women “domestic slaves” by keeping them economically dependent. Only a revolution that dismantles capitalist structures can bring about the real freedom of choice that women deserve, allowing them to participate fully in society on equal terms.