In individual industries where female labour pays an important role, any movement advocating better wages, shorter working hours, etc., would not be doomed from the start because of the attitude of those women workers who are not organized.
In the women's world, as well as in the men's world, there exists the class law and the class struggle, and it appears as fully established that sometimes between the socialist working women and those belonging to the middle class, there may be antagonisms.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the existence of class struggles and conflicts between different social classes, specifically between working women and middle-class women.
Clara Zetkin's quote emphasizes the inherent struggles and conflicts that exist within societal classes, noting that both women and men deal with class laws that can lead to antagonism between different groups. It draws attention to the differences in experiences and struggles of women from the working class compared to their middle-class counterparts, ultimately indicating that social divisions affect all aspects of life, including gender dynamics.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about women's rights, to emphasize the importance of understanding class differences among women.
More from Clara Zetkin
All quotes →When the men are silent, it is our duty to raise our voices in behalf of our ideals.
For reforms ameliorate the situation of the working class, they lighten the weight of the chains labour is burdened with by capitalism, but they are not sufficient to crush capitalism and to emancipate the workers from their tyranny.
When the men kill, it is up to us women to fight for the preservation of life.
Each reform, therefore, improving the economical and political situation of the workers proves to be an arm that increases the energy with which the proletarian struggle of classes is fought.
The socialist parties of all countries are duty bound to fight energetically for the implementation of universal women's suffrage which is to be vigorously advocated both by agitation and by parliamentary means. When a battle for suffrage is conducted, it should only be conducted according to socialist principles, and therefore with the demand of universal suffrage for women and men.
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What do you think has become of the young and old men? And what do you think has become of the women and children? They are alive and well somewhere, The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it, And ceas'd the moment life appear'd. All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.
My internal and external life depend so much on the work of others that I must make an extreme effort to give as much as I receive.
The mere absence of war is not peace.
If the Lord counts the natural beauty of the body inferior to that of the soul, what thinks He of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood?
In Quakerism, your understanding of God is revised in light of your own experience, while in research science, you revise your model in light of data from experiments.