Women in Class Society

by Heleieth Saffioti, Eleanor Burke Leacock (Introduction)

In this important theoretical and historical work, Brazilian sociologist Heleieth Saffioti deals with the interaction between the universal division of society based on sex and the capitalist division into classes. She focuses on two forms of capitalist society, the advanced and the emerging, with attention to the role of international capitalism in determining the particular problems of any minority in a dependent country.

The first section of the book is a theoretical analysis of the woman question, including a discussion of class and status in stratified society, which is then extended to the position of women under capitalism; of woman's labor and its relationship to the question of levels of consciousness; and of a possible socialist perspective. This sets the framework for the second section, which provides a detailed analysis of the Brazilian experience as it relates to women, especially in terms of their changing roles in the economy and their long struggle for equal education.

The final section integrates the foregoing into a broader framework, the goal of which is to demystify the way in which social science assimilates bourgeois practice. It begins with two short essays, one on Freudian theory and the other on the anthropological theory of cultural relativism as they have treated women. The major issue that emerges from these essays - the nature of the linkages between occupational and kinship structures under capitalism - is then explored in depth. Finally, the position of women is placed within a dialectical perspective. Throughout, Saffioti's argument is based on a Marxian analysis supplemented by the insights of Weber and the French structuralists.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Sociology

1 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Heleieth Iara Bongiovani Saffioti was a Brazilian sociologist, teacher and feminist activist.

Saffioti was the daughter of a seamstress and a mason. She was born in Ibirá in the state of São Paulo. She graduated with a degree in Social Sciences from the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1960. In the same year, she began her first academic research on women's condition in Brazil, a theme that would be the object of her thesis for the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Araraquara, the São Paulo State University (UNESP), entitled A mulher na sociedade de classe: mito e realidade(Woman in class society: myth and reality), under Professor Florestan Fernandes, which Saffioti defended in 1967 and was published in 1976. The book was a best-seller in its time and in the present day, it is still used as a reference in gender studies.[1]

She was a professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) and visiting professor at the School of Social Service Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She created a Gender Studies Center, Class and Ethnicity at UFRJ, supervised theses at PUC-SP and retired from UNESP (Araraquara campus), of which he was professor emeritus. Although she had her academic positions, she did not affiliate with other organizations as she did not want to lose her "freedom of thought".[2] In 2005, she was included in the collective statement "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize", coordinated by the Swiss organization Women for Peace Around the World, which aimed at recognizing the role of women in peace efforts. Among the 1000 women were 51 Brazilians.

Saffioti was married to the physical chemist Waldemar Saffioti, professor, author of textbooks and councilor in Araraquara. In 2000, shortly after her husband's death, she decided to donate the couple's farm in Araraquara to UNESP, which was turned into a cultural center. She remained active until the end of her life. She died at the age of 76 due to hypertension. There were no children.

Reviews

[Ronaldo Lima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro magistral de Saffioti, poucos autores e autoras souberam destrinchar tão bem a questão feminina dentro da sociedade capitalista. Acredito que o materialismo histórico dialético enriqueceu o debate sobre gênero e trouxe novas perspectivas sobre uma real libertação feminina das opressões sociais a elas impostas. Parece que mesmo sendo um livro de quase sessenta anos ele se mostra ainda a frente do seu tempo, radical em muitas das suas propostas assim como toda obra das Ciências Sociais deve ser.

[Camila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um estudo de fôlego sobre a mulher na sociedade de classes, com análise histórica da educação e trabalho da mulher no Brasil, uma reflexão sobre mística e ciência e o papel do movimento feminista. Tudo embasado por uma aplicação clara e fiel ao materialismo histórico dialético. Livro que deve ser referência a quem se propõe a militar ou estudar feminismo.

[juliana meurer · Rating 3 out of 5]

FINALMENTE terminei esse livro. fico até preocupada com o tanto que eu demorei, sério, que enrolação. travou todo meu ritmo de leitura mas ok, bola pra frente.

é um livro bom, muito detalhado. e bem importante. nem sei muito o que dizer porque fui me cansando bastante dessa leitura...

vou ter que dar uma relida para salvar os melhores trechos e não perder depois. é isso

[Beatriz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

[Christiane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensacional.

[isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

pqp muito bom