What do Marxist feminists emphasize about women's double exploitation?

• A. They emphasize that women are doubly exploited as workers and as women, and that the family helps maintain capitalism.
• B. They argue that gender oppression exists only in the home and not in paid work.
• C. They claim capitalism is strengthened by women's domestic work only at the micro level.
• D. They believe the family has no role in capitalist production.

Answer: (A)

Marxist feminists see women's oppression as twofold within capitalism. First, women experience wage-based exploitation just like other workers in paid employment. Second, they perform a large amount of unpaid domestic labour—housework, childcare, and emotional support—that keeps the family functioning and, crucially, reproduces the workforce for capital. This unpaid work lowers costs for capitalism and ensures future generations of workers are socialized and prepared to work, sustaining the system. So the family is a key site where exploitation occurs and is reproduced, reinforcing capitalist relations. The other options miss this link between unpaid domestic labour and the capitalist system, or claim oppression is confined to the home, or deny the family’s role in production, which Marxist feminists would argue against.