Why are women oppressed? How did that oppression begin? Why are opponents of women’s rights so determined to perpetuate laws and customs that deny women an equal role in society? Who benefits? What social forces have the power to end the second-class status of women, and have common interests in the fight for women’s liberation? In Problems of Women’s Liberation Evelyn Reed explores the economic and social roots of women’s oppression from prehistoric society to modern capitalism. She traces the original forms and institutions of private property, how they arose, and their consequences for women. She explains why the oppression of women is a manifestation of specific property relations, not sex relations. In refuting the myth of women’s inferiority, Reed points the road forward to emancipation. Reed is the author of Sexism and Science and Women’s Evolution, also published by Pathfinder.
