There is an abundant and growing feminist literature examining the implications of reproductive technologies that separate genetic, physiological, and social motherhood. The literature explains the development of these technologies in terms of the motivations of men (scientists, doctors, lawyers, “pharmacrats,”“technodocs,” etc.), stressing the victimization of women by the medical and legal institutions and the commodification of these technologies. This article examines these technologies from a Marxist-Feminist perspective, locating their sources in the overall development of the forces of production; that is, in structural changes irreducible to their microfoundations. In the process of changing the biological conditions of intergenerational social reproduction, these technologies have established the material basis for the structural separation between the mode of procreation (open to public scrutiny, medical intervention, and state supervision) and the mode of social and physical reproduction (which functions in the privacy of households). These structural changes are generating new identities and forms of consciousness that clash with taken-for-granted ideas about motherhood. These differences are captured in feminist debates about the significance of these technologies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arditti, Rita
, Renate Duelli-Klein, and Shelley Minden, eds. 1984. Test-tube women: What future for motherhood?London: Pandora.
2.
Bottomore, Tomet al.
, eds. 1983. A dictionary of Marxist thought.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
3.
Brenner, Johanna
, and Bill Resnick.1987. Baby M, family love and the market in women.Against the Current5:3-6.
4.
Burnham, Linda
, and Miriam Louie. 1985. The impossible marriage: A Marxist critique of socialist feminism.Line of March no. 17 (Spring).
5.
Cohen, G. A.
1980. Karl Marx's theory of history: A defense.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
Corea, Gena.
1985. The mother machine.New York: Harper & Row.
7.
Corea, Gena
, Jalna Hanmer, Renate D. Klein, Janice G. Raymond, and Robyn Rowland. 1987. Prologue in Made to order: The myth of reproductive and genetic progress, edited by Patricia Spallone and Deborah L. Steinberg. Oxford: Pergamon.
8.
Eisenstein, Zillah R.
1979. Capitalist patriarchy and the case for socialist feminism.New York: Monthly Review Press.
9.
Engels, Friedrich.
[1884] 1972. The origin of the family, private property, and the state.New York: International Publishers.
10.
Firestone, Shulamith.
1971. The dialectics of sex.New York: Bantam.
11.
Gimenez, Martha E.1975. Marxism and feminism.Frontiers-A Journal of Women Studies1:61-80.
12.
Gimenez, Martha E.1978. Structuralist Marxism on the woman question.Science & Society42:301-23.
13.
Gimenez, Martha E.1980. Feminism, pronatalism, and motherhood.International Journal of Women's Studies3:288-384.
14.
Gimenez, Martha E.
1982. The oppression of women. In Structural sociology, edited by I. Rossi. New York: Columbia University Press.
15.
Gimenez, Martha E.
1987. Marxist and non-Marxist elements in Engels' views on the oppression of women. In Engels revisited: New feminist essays, edited by Janet Sayers, Mary Evans, and Nanneke Redclift. London: Tavistock.
16.
Gimenez, Martha E.
1990. The dialectics of waged and unwaged work: Waged work, domestic labor and household survival in the United States. In Work without wages: Domestic labor and self-employment within capitalism, edited by Jane L. Collins and Martha E. Gimenez. New York: State University of New York Press.
17.
Hartmann, Heidi.1976. Capitalism, patriarchy, and job segregation by sex.Signs1:137-69.
18.
Hartmann, Heidi.
1981. The unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism: Toward a more progressive union. In Women and revolution, edited by L. Sargent. Boston: South End Press.
19.
Laborie, Françoise.
1987. Looking for mothers, you only find fetuses. In Made to order: The myth of reproductive and genetic progress, edited by Patricia Spallone and Deborah L. Steinberg. Oxford: Pergamon.
20.
Luker, Kristin.
1984. Abortion and the politics of motherhood.Berkeley: University of California Press.
21.
Marx, Karl.
[1859] 1970. A contribution to the critique of political economy.New York: International Publishers.
22.
Marx, Karl
, and Friedrich Engels. [1845-47] 1976. The German ideology. In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected works. Vol. 5. New York: International Publishers.
23.
Marx, Karl
, and Friedrich Engels. [1848] 1976. Manifesto of the Communist party. In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected works. Vol. 6. New York: International Publishers.
24.
Middleton, Chris.
1988. The familiar fate of the famulate: Gender divisions in the history of wage labor. In On work, edited by R. E. Pahl. New York: Basil Blackwell.
Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack.
1987. Foetal images: The power of visual culture in the politics of reproduction. In Reproductive technologies: Gender, motherhood and medicine, edited by Michelle Stanworth. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
27.
Rapp, Rayna.
1984. XYLO: A true story. In Test-tube women: What future for motherhood? edited by Rita Arditti, Renate Duelli-Klein, and Shelley Minden. London: Pandora.
28.
Raymond, Janice G.
1987. Fetalists and feminists: They are not the same. In Made to order: The myth of reproductive and genetic progress, edited by Patricia Spallone and Deborah L. Steinberg. Oxford: Pergamon.
29.
Rosaldo, Michelle.1980. The use and abuse of anthropology: Reflections on feminism and cross-cultural understanding.Signs5:389-417.
30.
Rothman, Barbara Katz.
1984. The meanings of choice in reproductive technology. In Test-tube women: What future for motherhood? edited by Rita Arditti, Renate Duelli-Klein, and Shelley Minden. London: Pandora.
31.
Rothman, Barbara Katz.
1987a. The tentative pregnancy: Prenatal diagnosis and the future of motherhood.New York: Penguin Books.
32.
Rothman, Barbara Katz.1987b. Comment on Harrison: The commodification of motherhood.Gender & Society3:312-16.
33.
Sargent, Lydia
, ed. 1981. Women and revolution: A discussion of the unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism.Boston: South End Press.
34.
Secombe, Wally.1974. The housewife and her labor under capitalism.New Left Review83:3-24.
35.
Smart, Carol.
1987. There is of course the distinction dictated by nature: Law and the problem of paternity. In Reproductive technologies: Gender, motherhood and medicine, edited by M. Stanworth. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
36.
Stanworth, Michelle.
1987. Reproductive technologies and the deconstruction of motherhood. In Reproductive technologies: Gender, motherhood and medicine, edited by M. Stanworth. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
37.
Timpanaro, Sebastiano.
1975. On materialism.London: New Left Books.
38.
Vogel, Lise.
1986. Marxism and the oppression of women: Toward a unitary theory.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
