Socialist feminism is a twentieth-century movement which argues that the liberal feminist focus on legal rights and opportunities is inadequate. According to socialist feminists, liberal feminism ignores the role of class and capitalism, presuming that all women have the same interests. Therefore they do not examine the specific exploitation of working-class women both at home and in the workplace. The emancipation of women is linked to the emancipation of the working classes in general.
The nineteenth-century utopian socialist Charles Fourier saw the treatment of women as an indicator of progress in society. He argued that ‘the degree of emancipation of women is the natural measure of general emancipation’. Fourier argued that in a future society based on equality, women would be fully liberated and would prove to be more capable than men in all areas not based on physical strength.
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