Historical materialism cannot explain woman’s oppression because it reduces man to the economic abstraction

Evidence

Although the synthesis outlined by Engels marks an advance over those we have already examined, it is still disappointing: the most serious problems are dodged. The whole account pivots around the transition from a communitarian regime to one of private property: there is absolutely no indication of how it was able to occur; Engels even admits that “for now we know nothing about it”; not only is he unaware of its historical details, but he offers no interpretation of it. Similarly, it is unclear if private property necessarily led to the enslavement of woman. Historical materialism takes for granted facts it should explain: it posits the interest that attaches man to property without discussing it; but where does this interest, the source of social institutions, have its own source? This is why Engels’s account remains superficial, and the truths he uncovers appear contingent. It is impossible to go deeper into them without going beyond historical materialism. It cannot provide solutions to the problems we indicated, because they concern the whole man and not this abstraction, Homo economicus. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 145

Categorization

• DEFINE: Engels’s account centers on the communitarian-to-private-property transition; Beauvoir’s critique treats ‘Homo economicus’ as a reductive abstraction.
• XREF: This extends the earlier chapters’ survey of biological and psychoanalytic accounts of woman, and sets up Beauvoir’s turn to existentialism. — connects to: Orthodox Marxism reduces woman’s oppression to economic capacity and class — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 144; Historical materialism requires retaining economic determination without economic reductionism; Economic emancipation alone does not place women in a situation identical to men’s — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1920 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Historical economism reduces history to individual greed and technical change #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 710
• Historical materialism requires retaining economic determination without economic reductionism #qualifies (0.80)
• Economic emancipation alone does not place women in a situation identical to men’s #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1920
• Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism #qualifies (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881
• Marx refused to reduce history to a single ultimate economic cause #contradicts (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1633
• Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence #responds-to (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675
• Historical materialism fails to capture Black historical being as more than opposition to capital #exemplifies (0.75)
• Economic-reductionist cultural theory stays trapped at an epochal level of abstraction #expands (0.75)