Socialists Have Long Fought for Women’s Liberation
Socialist men can be important organizers in the struggle for both workers’ rights and women’s emancipation. Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in the life of German socialist August Bebel, who did more to win women's rights than any other nineteenth-century politician.
August Bebel in 1900. Jaime Abecasis Collection / Universal Images Group via Getty
European left and liberal feminists have a long history of mutual animosity, dating back to the bourgeois-socialist conflicts of the nineteenth century. In North America, class-conscious women once found themselves torn between rival social movements, with many women feeling forced to choose between fighting for their class interests or ending gender oppression, rather than agitating for both.
Today, women’s activists around the world experience similar dilemmas when faced with a choice between progressive male leaders and their sometimes more centrist female rivals. But history shows us that progressive men are essential allies in the struggle for both workers’ rights and women’s emancipation. And in the case of August Bebel, a mostly forgotten lion of German socialism, no nineteenth-century politician managed to do more for women.
“On a Par With Man and Mistress of Her Destiny”
Born on February 22, 1840, Bebel grew up in poverty after the early death of his father. As a young adolescent, his mother apprenticed him to become a woodturner and joiner. Upon finishing his vocational training, Bebel traveled as a journeyman carpenter, finding intermittent employment across Germany and Switzerland. As industrialization accelerated across the Continent, Bebel saw for himself the abysmal working conditions of both men and women.
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