Journal of Historical Sociology Vol. 2 No. 4 December 1989 ISSN 0952-1909

Property and 'Patriarchy' in English History

Mary murray

Abstract This article seeks to demonstrate that the gendered structuring of property relations in England can be understood in terms of the historical development of modes of production and reproduction. Society at the barbarian chiefdom, feudal, and capitalist stages of development is analysed. It is argued that gender relations within barbarian chiefdoms were contradictory, and that these contradictions had detrimental implications for women under feudalism. Given this historical legacy, it is then argued that the specificity of capitalist property rights laid the basis for the division of classes along the lines of gender.

The last two decades have seen the growth of a body of literature concerned with the nature of women's oppression. This literature has attempted to understand both the origins of women's oppression and the articulation of that oppression with property/class relations. Broadly speaking, the debate has been carried out between radical and Marxist feminists. Whilst suggesting that the form of women's oppression has varied historically, radical feminists have nonetheless tended to argue that the subordination of women is transhistorical - often rooted in biological differences between the sexes. Marxist feminists have argued that the emergence of women's oppression is historically specific, the specificity of production and reproduction as a dialectical totality being the determining factor.

Much of the debate has been conducted in conceptual and theoretical terms.¹ Whilst it is possible to discuss the nature of women's oppression in conceptual and theoretical terms, without recourse to empirical refutation or verification, it is unlikely that such an approach will furnish 'answers'. Partly as an attempt to avoid such an impasse, more recently there has also developed a body of literature concerned with an historical and empirical investigation of the issues.² However, as far as England is concerned, the bulk of this material has focused on the capitalist period. To date, sociologists have not attempted to address the issues by piecing together the epochs which make up English history. This article is an attempt to contribute to such a task.

The intention is to investigate whether or not the oppression of women in England has been historically specific. At the same time an attempt is made to give form to an argument which has remained largely rhetorical within the radical feminist discourse - i.e. that the

304 Mary Murray

form of women's oppression varies historically. Both of these concerns necessarily involve consideration of the issue of the 'autonomy' of 'patriarchy', i.e. whether or not the oppression of women operates with any degree of autonomy from relations of production. By focussing on property relations in England, from the Anglo-Saxon period through into the 19th century, the intention is to contribute to a resolution of the issues, which have been debated within and between Marxism and feminism. Although the orientation will be primarily historical, the implications will be theoretical.