‘Socialism is Feminism!’ A 115-Year old socialist-feminist manifesto from Lida Parce.

‘The Danger of Exclusive Masculinism’ by Lida Parce from The Socialist Woman. Vol. 2 No. 14. July, 1908.

‘So much is constantly being said about the dangers of feminism, and so many things are assumed with regard to feminism and its alleged dangers by those who view them “with alarm,” that the time seems ripe to examine the subject critically, to determine how far these assumptions are justified, and whether the alarm is reasonable in view of the facts. It will be well to begin with a definition of both feminism and masculinism.

‘Darwin says that man Is more “pugnacious, courageous and energetic than woman,” and further, that “he delights In competition, which too easily passes in to selfishness.” He says that woman has in her character “greater tenderness and less selfishness,” and he reflects that “It Is probable that she would often extend them toward her fellow creatures.” Other scientists express the distinctive mental characteristics of sex by the terms “conservative” and “constructive.” Spencer declares woman to be more strong in altruism, man In egotism. To sum up, then, we may define feminism as expressing the conservational and altruistic tendencies of human character, while masculinism ls the expression of energy, courage, aggressiveness, selfishness. We know that by his greater “pugnaciousness” man has fought the battles of the race for good and ill. By his aggressiveness he has established governments and carried commerce to the ends of the earth. By his energy he has explored the heavens and the earth, and he has made the splendid discoveries of science and the inventions that have made possible the emancipation of the race from the tyranny or toil. These are some of the fruits of masculinism. Now, if we look for the powers and achievements of woman, we shall find them, for the most part, in a different field. We find that for all the ages, before the peculiar achievements of men were perfected, woman performed by far the greater part of those labors by which the race was clothed and fed. During primitive days, among tribes that are in a state of advancing culture, it is well known that production is in the hands of women, and that it is carried on for the benefit of all. Every woman was joint-mother of her tribe. Every child and every adult who was dependent upon her for his living, fared as well as any other. She fed and clothed and sheltered the race, and so efficiently did she apply all the means at her command to its conservation and advancement that at last it reached the plane of civilization. At this period, the masculine special faculties are employed in war or hunting or idleness. Later, when the individual man begins to own the land, altruism ceases to be the guiding spirit of production and the masculine spirit addresses itself to producing, not for the sake of sustaining the race, but for the sake of owning the goods. Egotism, or the personal Interest, come into control of the economic life. And as all the other Interests rest upon the economic interest, masculinism may be said to be in exclusive control of the social life.

‘We have just this situation to-day. Those achievements of masculinism which have potentially set man tree, have not accomplished that end, practically. On the contrary, every new chemical discovery becomes a means of adulterating or poisoning the food supply, every new structural invention robs the race of space and air and sunshine. Every invention of machinery becomes a new device for tying men and women and little children to the wheels to be ground into dividends for ladies and gentlemen to burn. Every new concentration in business administration proves to be a means whereby men can shut off the production or subsistence whenever it becomes unprofitable to themselves; and they do not hesitate to do this for a moment when profits cease. The result is that we find, throughout the world, the means of production partially retired, men and women tramping up and down looking for a chance to work, children going to school in a starving condition, hundreds of thousands of other children whose vitality, in the years when they should be growing and hardening for a long life of future usefulness, is being sapped and exhausted in mills and cottonfields, In shops and mines, without sufficient food, without proper clothing or any of the things that make life good and wholesome. A large section of the race is thus in a state of rapid degeneration.

‘In view of these facts, the time is overripe for asking whether a regime of exclusive masculinism Is a good thing to have. Those who view feminism with alarm assume that It Is. They also assume that feminism would be in the nature of degeneracy, and that there is danger that feminism will be introduced in some insidious way, quite without our knowledge and consent.

‘When we reflect upon the progress that was made under feminism, with the meager resources that mark primitive conditions, and then compare It with the degeneracy that Is taking place under masculinism with Its infinitely multiplied productiveness, it seems like an Insult to Intelligence to ask whether we want to continue the regime of exclusive masculinism. Socialists place the very highest valuation upon the achievements of man’s energy and initiative. We know that but for bis devotion to science and his discoveries and inventions the co-operative commonwealth would forever remain impossible. But when Socialism advocates the co-operative production of subsistence, for the benefit of all, it advocates feminism. Not exclusive feminism, but a fair representation of the feminine element in human affairs. Socialists should recognize that this is feminism. The capitalist estimate of feminism: that It Is something sweetly sentimental and soft and inefficient, perhaps kittenish and amusing, but never to be taken seriously, is an insult to womanhood. But it has come to be such a habit of the male mind that very few, even among socialists, are able to outgrow it, and it speaks constantly from the pages of socialist writers.

‘That fear which has so often been voiced by educators, lest feminism creep stealthily upon us through the public schools ls wholly unfounded. So long as masculinism is in complete control of the methods of production it will be impossible to make feminism effective in any department of life. The public school system ls fundamentally feminine. It Is co-operative, altruistic in principle and in operation, excepting where it becomes the victim of graft and politics. But It Is notoriously true that the generous Impulses and the noble Ideals that are Inculcated In the schools have to be unlearned in order to succeed in the “business” of life. Feminism In Ideals cannot control life in opposition to masculinism in economics. Feminism can no more take us unawares than a revolution in the economic system can. The one can never come without the other.

‘Meantime the penalties of exclusive masculinism are being paid dally, In the form of defective children, preventable infant mortality, the idleness which breeds both despair and vice, the overwork which begets both exhaustion and degeneracy.

‘Would the substitution of feminism in the methods of production be a dangerous thing? On the contrary, it presents the only means of bringing the degenerative process to an end and starting the race once more on the upward path.

‘Socialism is feminism!’

Progressive Woman replaced The Socialist Woman. The Socialist Woman was a monthly magazine edited by Josephine Conger-Kaneko from 1907 with this aim: “The Socialist Woman exists for the sole purpose of bringing women into touch with the Socialist idea. We intend to make this paper a forum for the discussion of problems that lie closest to women’s lives, from the Socialist standpoint”. In 1908, Conger-Kaneko and her husband Japanese socialist Kiichi Kaneko moved to Girard, Kansas home of Appeal to Reason, which would print Socialist Woman. In 1909 it was renamed The Progressive Woman, and The Coming Nation in 1913. Its contributors included Socialist Party activist Kate Richards O’Hare, Alice Stone Blackwell, Eugene V. Debs, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and others. A treat of the journal was the For Kiddies in Socialist Homes column by Elizabeth Vincent. The Progressive Woman lasted until 1916.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-woman/080700-socialistwoman-v2w14.pdf