What Marx was propagating for a more socially equal and respectful environment for women where they could work out of their own free will and did not have to resort to prostitution and other evils to support themselves. But I must agree that Marx's sarcastic way of advancing his argument in the manifesto is certainly offensive in tone. It shows disregard for women and levies some unsolicited and unsupported charges against capitalism.
Another important and rather controversial remark is found later in the manifesto when Marx argues: "But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the bourgeoisie in chorus. The bourgeois sees his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women."
This remark is controversial because people feel to understand what is exactly meant by a community of women. What are these charges against capitalism and what is their true nature? It is important to study it in historical context to understand its significance and meaning. Capitalism rose to new heights when Industrial revolution was at its peak. This was a time of utter desperation for those who had moved from rural or less developed countries to larger industrial base. In these times, children and women were forced to work in rather shabby conditions to support entire families and later capitalism was seen as an evil phenomenon for it forced young women and children to endure inhumane conditions in factories and mines. Whether it is correct to blame capitalism for...
Marx is only arguing against capitalism in this context. What he means to say is that women were seen not as human beings but as instruments of production by capitalist regimes. He thus sarcastically goes on to propose that women be also made common like other resources which capitalist states feel must be commonly available to everyone. He argues that if all resources are supposed to be at the disposal of everyone then women if seen as instruments of productions, should also be at everyone's disposal. Marx thus further clarifies his stance: "has not even a suspicion that the real point aimed at is to do away with the status of women as mere instruments of production. For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous than the virtuous indignation of our bourgeois at the community of women which, they pretend, is to be openly and officially established by the Communists. The Communists have no need to introduce free love; it has existed almost from time immemorial."
At first these comments appear rude and uncultured. But what Marx and Engels were implying was simply this: capitalism should not attack communism for creating a community of women or for giving birth to a society of prostitution. This is because capitalist itself is to be blamed for these ills in the society.
Works Cited
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the Communist Manifesto (1848) reprinted in Modern Political Thought: The Great Issues, ed. By William Ebenstein, (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1960), pp. 413-22
