it we will not be difficult recognize that women, as and when they worked in production and become economically independent, reacted with a growing bitterness about their second-class existence - both in family and in society. Any observer free and free of bias can easily see that there is a contradiction between the recognition of women as a force for socially useful work and discrimination legislation bourgeois. This contradiction between the meaning of work of women for production, on the one hand, and lack of rights of a political perspective and social, on the other hand, as its subordination to her husband who has long since ceased, however, support her, this contradiction, so we owe it to the original birth of the so-called "woman question."
The "woman question" was posed with particular vehemence in the second half of last century, although we find already the beginnings in this direction at a much earlier period. We already see the time when competition from the factory
rushed to bankrupt the small craftsmen and home workers, forcing them to sell their own strength Working with large enterprises as well as that of their wives and children. At the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, the "woman question" But mainly focused on women's wages and their right to "decent work".
In three centuries, the guilds and their privileges with the severity of their decrees made so that the woman found herself excluded from the crafts.
corporations tried to relegate her kitchen forever, that is to say that women should withdraw from the production and give it to humans. What resulted was naturally aggravate the situation of women. Since she lost the opportunity to exercise a craft, it became easier prey to the manufacturer and the victim of its operating policy.
In France, the system then dominated the manufacturing production. But the factories were rarely large enough to be called industrial enterprises, that is to say more than a hundred workers. Working at home and manufacturing flourished and patrolled the whole of France. Small manufacturing enterprises with no more than ten to twenty workers multiplied like mushrooms in the Paris region and in other French cities. In these factories, we not only sewed fabrics and linens heavy and coarse to the finest lace, but also articles of gold or metal, and all sorts of everyday objects. Many women worked in the weaving and spinning. They were often even 90% of the total labor force employed in this sector. In France, the manufacture of silk was almost moved to industrial production. In this area, the factory had won on home industry and manufacturing.
the eve of the French Revolution, the female proletariat had developed considerably, and the suburbs of Paris were flooded with beggars and prostitutes, a multitude of unemployed women, suffering from poverty and hunger. It is therefore not surprising that during the riots of July 1789, the women are engaged in a particularly vehement against domination and exploitation of the rich.
"Women of the people" of Paris claimed consistently in their slogans and their petitions the right to work and the promise of "earn an honest living." They also demanded the right to work for man and woman, along with a ban for man to work in typically female occupations, alongside a commitment to give up looking for work in areas specifically male. "If we seek work, not to liberate us men, but for us to build an independent existence in a modest ," said one of these petitions.
When the French Revolution, women in the Third Estate demanded free access to all the crafts or in other words, the "unlimited freedom of labor." These claims were designed to enable tens of thousands of women suffering from poverty and hunger to escape poverty and prostitution. This was not only women's claims, but it claims to own the entire interest of French industrial proletariat.
residents of the suburbs of Paris protesting and shouting together: "Freedom work! "Freedom of the work meant to clear the final elimination of feudalism and consolidating the dominance of the bourgeoisie and the liquidation of privileges for corporations. Indicated their interest in French class the best way to go if they wanted one day a chance to win "honest living".
Women of the French proletariat stood clearly on the side of the Revolution.
Kollontai - Lecturer at the University Sverdlov on women's liberation
