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In the family the new born baby - that incoherent, inarticulate, helpless, tiny animal - gradually grows into a human being. A human being who is male or female, who "belongs' to a particular family, who learns to speak and to communicate in a range of ways, to develop some characteristics and to suppress other potentialities, to become a male or female "member' of a particular group in a particular society. In this process in our society girls learn to identify themselves with their mothers, to develop emotional, irrational, passive, dependant, timid qualities, and to become more interested in people than in things: boys learn to identify themselves with their fathers, to develop qualities of emotional control, rationality, aggressiveness, assertiveness, and to become interested in things and in ideas rather than in people. This process which we are trying to describe is a social one, it is a complex and uneven one, and it does not always produce the expected types of women and men. Nor does it always produce characteristics which are appropriate to all the situations in which men and women will find themselves. (Thus the 'problem of the conflict between home and work for many women, the conflict between being an academically successful student and a successful woman student, the conflict between expecting equality and being female in society generally). Two examples will indicate that this process is social, not natural, in content. Firstly we can see that in different societies different types of men and women are produced. (The emotional, vain, gossiping, artistic men, the domineering, organising, hardworking women of Tchambuli society as described by Margaret Mead, as compared to male and female stereotypes in our own society). Secondly we can see that in some cases human beings do not identify themselves with the sex to which they physically "belong (according to the type of genitals they have), but with the opposite sex, as in the case of transexuals. However we should not assume that because the process of attaining a sexual-personal identity is social, that it is superficial; nor, on the other hand can we assume that all aspects are equally significant. Except for transexuals, who in changing sex are asserting their true identity, most of us cannot change our sexual identities; nor can we individually change the significance of being female in a male dominated class society. On the other hand it is possible to reject or modify some aspects of "femininity"; for example with regard to dress and concern about personal appearance, with regard to commitment to household tasks, with regard to dependancy on men etc. However this scope for choice', even for those who are involved in the women's liberation movement, in which they find support in rejecting many aspects of traditional "femininity", is fairly limited. And for most women, whose education has been minimal, and has mostly seemed irrelevant to them, and whose chance of economic independance is absolutely limited, the alternatives to traditional family relationships and forms of self expression - however unsatisfactory these may be - hardly seem to exist at all at the present time.
WHT A COOL LITTLE WHAT A Goat UTTLE GIRL In our society class inequality and sex inequality combine, and these are perpetuated through the family. In a certain sense we can say that the division of labour in the family (into houseworker and breadwinner), and the economic inequality of women and men in society generally (unequal work and pay) are the material basis of the sex stereotypes which we described above. So that once a child has identified has a certain position in the tamily and in society, the process of acquiring the characteristics of the subordinate sex will follow almost automatically. Thus we can see that as the consequences of being female become more apparent increasing numbers of girls (from about the age of 10) come to wish that they were boys; girls' school attainments fall off rapidly (from around 16) and they disappear more rapidly from fulltime, part time and day release education than even working class boys.
However things are actually more complex and more subtle than this. The ways in which adults relate to male and female children bear the mark of the social inequalities between men and women. For example several studies have shown that even in the earliest stages of infancy mothers related to their male children differently (more attentively) than to their female children; this is even the case where mothers say that they believe that children should be brought up the same way irrespective of sex. (see Dahlstrom: Changing
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Aner of Men and Romen). Thus we can see that sex englyning in children's stories, in toys, in school etc.
at more ofous ways of developing 'male" and "Semale' characteristics in boys and girls; but the process is already underway in the earliest weeks of a child's life. It is not, then perhaps surprising that so many women experience their social inequality as their personal inferiority; and that for many women their consciousness of themselves as women is tied to an acceptance of their subordination.
The process of throwing off this sense of one's own "innate" female inferiority is therefore likely to be difficult, painful and sometimes explosive - and not only for women themselves. The assertions of black power and black beauty made by black people have been tremendously important in their rejection of white racism, and also made many white liberals squirm. However, the problem of throwing off female inferiority is only to a certain extent comparable to throwing off black inferiority. Black people in Britain, the USA, etc., are overwhelmingly working class and amongst the poorest sections of the class, and the potential for combining the black struggle with the anti-imperialist anti-capitalist struggle is very great. With women the situation is more contradictory. Wealthy women, even if they are inferior" to wealthy men enjoy the privileges which come from being in a position to exploit and oppress others - women and men; for most wealthy women, their class interests are over-riding. To ignore this leads us into quite reactionary positions. Thus ironically, the most radical rejection of female inferiority as expressed by some radical feminists can lead to a desire to unite with police women against male demonstrators who are acting in support of women's demands. In addition to this, female inferiority is structured into society, into the family, and into the most personal relationships which people experience. Thus the problem of challenging male chauvinism and sexism in society, in the labour movement and in the revolutionary organization is very complicated - which is not to say that it can be ignored until after the revolution.
Margaret Coulson.