The articles in this book begin from a concern to understand the relation between patriarchy and capitalism and to come to grips with the dissatisfaction many women feel despite the rhetoric of sexual equality which has become commonplace.

Dorothy Smith examines the changing relation between the family and the economy in the context of the capitalist mode of production. Varda Burstyn traces the history of the sexual division of labour in pre-capitalist societies and shows how in industrial societies the state becomes the expression and enforcer of masculine domination.