계급이론에 관한 여성학적 고찰

A Feminist Review of Class Theories

Feminists have argued that the treatment of women in conventional class theories is not only sexist but leads to a distortion of our understanding of social class. Their major contention has been that conventional class theories are inadequate, because they have excluded, ignored, and considered improperly women. Thus, Feminists have attempted to incorporate an understanding of women into existing social class schemes. But it seems that there are a number of problems in this approach. In chapter three of this thesis, the empirical data are analyzed to examine the characteristics of women' s labor market, sexual labor market segmentation, and women worker's subjective identity. According to this analysis, it is evident that gender inequality is irreducible to economic class inequality, and rooted in different base. So it seems that both patriarchy (sex/gender system) and class should be equally considered, and further developed to build more comprehensive social theory. Class is gendered, and gender is classified. If we are to understand, change and develop one system itself, it is necessary to understand the other system properly. Feminist class theory should seek to speak to the experiences of women, to understand reality from the viewpoint of women, to ask questions related to women'lives. Therefore, feminist class theory requires the fundamental reconceptualization of the conventional class theories, which would be of help to understand and change the whole societal structure more accurately.