Transcending the dichotomy between “gender” and “class”: The construction of a new gender identity as condition of capitalism

Abstract The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the argument on which Federici bases the thesis that gender is the result of a construction and that the determinations of gender identity and sexuality constructed from Modernity onwards, which are still predominant today, are closely linked to the demands of capitalist life and work relations, thus opposing an essentialist or naturalist interpretation of these categories. In order to achieve this goal, Federici's approach to the social and historical causes of the construction of a new “feminine” social identity will be presented, with emphasis on her effort to show how the need for this identity arises especially in a period of original capital accumulation, but extends beyond, guaranteeing the continued reproduction of the capitalist mode of production. It will also be shown how this new social identity and function can only be carried out through a veritable “campaign of terror,” crystallized in the phenomenon, for Federici eminently modern, of the witch-hunt. This reconstruction seeks to endorse the author's defense of a feminism which, insofar as it establishes that the identity of “woman” and its alienating social determinations have a necessary connection with the development of capitalism, also proposes the overcoming of the dichotomy between “gender” and “class” through a radical critique of this mode of production.