WOMEN AS THE REFLECTION OF CLASS STRUGGLES ...repository.usd.ac.id/37712/2/164214037_full.pdfpada tema yaitu perjuangan kelas melalui pendekatan feminisme marxis. Ketiga, peneliti

WOMEN AS THE REFLECTION OF CLASS STRUGGLES IN

THE “TWO WOMEN” POEM BY AN ANONYMOUS CHILEAN AUTHOR

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

DYAS PUTRI WINAYU

Student Number: 164214037

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2020

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii

WOMEN AS THE REFLECTION OF CLASS STRUGGLES IN

THE “TWO WOMEN” POEM BY AN ANONYMOUS CHILEAN AUTHOR

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

DYAS PUTRI WINAYU

Student Number: 164214037

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2020


vii

Have faith in yourself and in the future.

—Ted Kennedy—


viii

For my beloved family who gives me a never-ending support

And my close friends who support me with the strength and

encouragement.


ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I express my highest thanks to God, because of the blessings and abundance

of grace He gave me, I was able to complete my thesis. I also thank myself for

having dared to always step foot in the face of fear and to this extent. I also offer

my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Sri Mulyani, Ph.D who has guided me

so far with great patience until the completion of this thesis. Not to forget, I also

thank my co-advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. who has corrected and

improved my thesis.

Next, I want to thank my support system. My parents who have been

patiently loyal and always support me. For my brother, who always makes me laugh

because of his jokes. Martinus Danang, thank you for being there for me, who

believes and gives me strength in my tough moment. Also to my fellow classmates

who have fought together, Neta, Julia, and Ayu. For my high school girl gang

Afifah, Asha, Bella, Maria, and Tina thank you for giving me such a wonderful

bond in friendship. Last, I would thank the countless others whom the name I have

not mentioned, thank you for all of your support.

Dyas Putri Winayu


x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................ ii

APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................. iii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ........................................................................................ iv

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY .................................................................... v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH .. vi

MOTTO PAGE .................................................................................................. viii

DEDICATION PAGE ........................................................................................ viii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... x

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... xii

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ xiii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1

A. Background of the Study ............................................................................... 1

B. Problem Formulation ..................................................................................... 3

C. Objectives of the Study .................................................................................. 3

D. Definition of Terms ....................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................... 6

A. Review of Related Studies .............................................................................. 6

B. Review of Related Theories ............................................................................ 9

1. Theory of Marxist Feminism ....................................................................... 9

2. Theory on Class ......................................................................................... 11

3. Theory of Identity ...................................................................................... 14

4. Theory of Patriarchy .................................................................................. 15

C. Review of Related Backgrounds .................................................................. 16

1. Chile’s Government System ...................................................................... 16 2. Chile’s Class Structure............................................................................... 20

D. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................ 21

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 24

A. Object of the Study ....................................................................................... 24


xi

B. Approach of the Study .................................................................................. 25

C. Method of the Study ..................................................................................... 25

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 27

A. The Poem, the Summary, and Explication of the Poem ............................... 27

1. The Full Text of the Poem ......................................................................... 27

2. The Summary and Explication of the Poem .............................................. 30

B. The Description of Women Characters and Their Social Class Presented

in “Two Women” ......................................................................................... 33 1. The First Woman ....................................................................................... 33

2. The Second Woman ................................................................................... 41

C. The Forms of Gender and Class Struggles Experienced by the Women

Characters in “Two Women”....................................................................... 51 1. The First Woman ....................................................................................... 52

2. The Second Woman ................................................................................... 56

D. The Women’s Responses to Gender and Class Struggles in “Two Women” ..................................................................................................................... 63

1. The First Woman ....................................................................................... 63

2. The Second Woman ................................................................................... 70

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 76

REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 79


xii

ABSTRACT

WINAYU, DYAS PUTRI. (2020). Women as the Reflection of Class Struggles

in the “Two Women” Poem by an Anonymous Chilean Author. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

In the capitalist society, classes and class struggles are very much alive

(Berberoglu, 2007, p. 50). The class is defined by means of production; there are

two major classes, bourgeois, and proletariat. Bourgeois is who owns the social

means of production as their private property (Dahrendorf, 1966, p.195). Whereas,

proletariat according to Engel is class in society which lives entirely from the sale

of its labor (Engels, 1847, p. 9). The class division in the capitalist society can also

be seen in "Two Women" poem, the researcher analyzes the class struggles that are

experienced by women characters as the impact of class distinction.

Therefore, in order to understand the class struggles that happened in the

poem, the study is aimed to answer three problems. The first reveals the description

of women related to the social classes and identities according to Chile society in

the late 20th century regarding how the author characterized women related to

material things. The second aim is to observe the forms of gender and class struggle

that the women faced based on their different social classes. The last is to examine

the women characters' responses to gender and class struggle in the poem.

The approach used is marxist feminism. The theories used are the theory of

marxist feminism, theory on class, theory of identity, and theory of patriarchy. This

study also utilizes the review of related backgrounds such as Chile's government

system and Chile's class structure to make this study well-formed. There are several

steps to analyze the poem. First, close reading is applied to get a better

understanding of the content that is analyzed. Second, the researcher puts the focus

and attention on the theme, a class struggle through marxist feminism approach.

Third, the researcher analyzes the problem formulation. Last, the researcher draws

the conclusion through the portrayal of women characters in the poem.

Both characters are presented using the perspective of women with

different social classes in the couplet form of the poem. The couplet form is

arranged by the poet to emphasize the importance of the social class as a bourgeois

woman and proletariat woman. The forms of gender and class struggle that the

women characters experienced in the poem are different from one another based on

the social class that they belong to. However, the proletariat woman suffered the

most rather than the bourgeois woman. The characters' responses to the class

struggles are also different. The bourgeois woman resists, while the proletariat

woman stays still passive.

Keywords: class struggle, capitalist society, marxist feminism, women’s identity


xiii

ABSTRAK

WINAYU, DYAS PUTRI. (2020). Women as the Reflection of Class Struggles

in the “Two Women” Poem by an Anonymous Chilean Author. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Dalam masyarakat kapitalis, kelas dan perjuangan kelas terasa sangat nyata

(Berberoglu, 2007, p. 50). Kelas didefinisikan melalui alat-alat produksi; ada dua

kelas utama, borjuis, dan proletariat. Bourgeois adalah pemilik alat sosial produksi

sebagai milik pribadi (Dahrendorf, 1966, p.195). Sedangkan, proletariat menurut

Engel adalah kelas dalam masyarakat yang hidup sepenuhnya dari menjual tenaga

kerja (Engels, 1847, p. 9). Pembagian kelas dalam masyarakat kapitalis juga dapat

dilihat dalam puisi “Two Women”, peneliti menganalisis perjuangan kelas yang dialami oleh karakter perempuan sebagai dampak dari perbedaan kelas.

Oleh sebab itu, untuk memahami perjuangan kelas yang terjadi dalam puisi

tersebut, skripsi ini bertujuan untuk menjawab tiga permasalahan. Pertama

mengungkapkan deskripsi wanita yang terkait dengan kelas sosial dan identitas

menurut masyarakat Chili pada akhir abad ke-20 tentang cara penyair

mengkarakterisasikan wanita terkait dengan hal-hal materi. Tujuan kedua adalah

untuk mengetahui bentuk-bentuk perjuangan gender dan kelas yang dialami oleh

karakter wanita berdasarkan kelas sosial yang berbeda. Yang terakhir adalah

meneliti respon mereka terhadap perjuangan gender dan kelas dalam puisi.

Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah feminisme marxist. Teori yang

diaplikasikan adalah feminisme marxist, teori kelas, teori identitas, dan teori

patriarki. Skripsi ini juga menggunakan tinjauan latar belakang terkait seperti

sistem pemerintahan Chili dan struktur kelas Chile untuk membuat penelitian ini

terbentuk dengan baik. Ada beberapa langkah untuk menganalisis puisi tersebut.

Pertama, close reading untuk mendapatkan pemahaman yang lebih mendalam

tentang konten yang dianalisis. Kedua, peneliti menempatkan fokus dan perhatian

pada tema yaitu perjuangan kelas melalui pendekatan feminisme marxis. Ketiga,

peneliti menganalisis puisi berdasarkan rumusan masalah. Terakhir, peneliti

menarik kesimpulan melalui penggambaran tokoh perempuan dalam puisi tersebut.

Kedua tokoh disajikan dengan menggunakan perspektif wanita dengan

kelas sosial yang berbeda dalam puisi berbentuk couplet. Bentuk couplet yang

diatur oleh penyair menekankan pentingnya kelas sosial sebagai wanita borjuis dan

wanita proletariat. Bentuk-bentuk gender dan perjuangan kelas yang dialami

karakter wanita dalam puisi tersebut berbeda satu dengan yang lain berdasarkan

kelas sosialnya. Namun, wanita proletariat paling menderita daripada wanita

borjuis. Respon karakter terhadap perjuangan kelas juga berbeda. Wanita borjuis

menentang, sementara wanita proletariat tetap pasif.

Kata kunci: class struggle, capitalist society, marxist feminism, women’s identity


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

People live in a region and always form a community or class. Class is

formed through similarity among people and makes a bond because of that. Then,

the class can define the social strata of people based on their economic conditions.

Wealth and poverty have a significant impact and determine the class itself. In his

Class and Class Conflict in Industrial, Dahrendorf explained that “Initially the

word 'class' was used—for example, by Ferguson and Millar in the eighteen

century—simply to distinguish social strata, as we should say today, by their rank

or wealth” (1966, p. 4).

After the emergence of classes in society, there is a gap between them,

which is then called class conflict or class struggle. This term means that it is a

struggle for political and economic power carried on between capitalist and

workers. Dahrendorf said that the conception of class struggle itself based on

Hegel's dialectics (1966, p.8). It focuses on the inequalities of different groups in

society. Class is political forces based on ownership and power relations.

This study discusses the class struggles that happened in “Two Women”

poem written in 1973 by an anonymous working-class Chilean author. “Two

Women,” tells a contradiction about the gap of the social classes and the class


2

struggles that reflect in the two characters. The first woman is bourgeois,

and the second woman is proletariat. This poem briefly summarizes Chile's social

condition before and after Allende ruled the nation through women's perspective.

This poem is also seen as a representation inspired by the social condition in which

the women characters faced the class conflicts and struggles. Considering the author

is also known as a working-class Chilean author at that time, “Two Women” is

categorized as a narrative poem that expresses the historical fiction and can be

called as prose fiction.

This study analyzes the description of women and class struggles in the

poem through women characters. “Two Women” can be one of the tools to see

social classes in the world through poem. This poem also emphasizes the

importance of social class to influence all aspects of life in a capitalist society. The

class distinction makes economy inequality and raises the class conflict and

struggle.

This topic is worth studying for some important reasons. Firstly, to find out

the description and social classes of women in a capitalist society. Secondly, it

raises an understanding of the class related to the struggle of the proletarian class.

Thirdly, it brings out the understanding of the society which is complex and not

only consists of one class. Therefore, knowing that society is a composition of

several different classes makes readers more comprehend with the disparity and

gives the basic understanding to readers to respect other people.


3

B. Problem Formulation

Based on the background of the study, there are three problems that can be

formulated as follows:

1. How are women characters and their social classes presented in “Two Women”?

2. What forms of gender and class struggle do the women characters experienced

in “Two Women”?

3. How do they respond to gender and class struggles in “Two Women”?

C. Objectives of the Study

This study is expected to find out the description of women related to the

social classes. This study is also expected to gain knowledge of the social class

through women's perspective in the period before and after the socialist president

governed in the 20th century. Further finding in this study is to analyze women's

identities according to Chile society in the late 20th century regarding how the

author characterized women related to material things. Moreover, this study is to

observe the class struggle that the women face based on their social classes.

Due to the research, the analysis can be found through comprehensive

reading. This study uses marxist feminism approach since the analysis focuses on

class struggle using women's perspective to reveal the class struggle or class

conflict. Some theories are also added to make the study well-formed. The theories

applied in this study are the theory of marxist feminism, theory on class, theory of

identity, and theory of patriarchy. Moreover, the Chilean historical background

contains the governments' economic systems and social class structure in the late


4

20th century that could complement this study.Moreover, the Chilean historical

background contains the governments’ economic systems and social class structure

in the late 20th century that could make the research well-formed.

D. Definition of Terms

There are some terms that need to be explained in order to ease the reader

in understanding the topic of this study, the terms can be defined as follows. The

first word is woman, that the idea of dealing with the specificity of women's

position from a materialist perspective. In order to answer the question of ‘woman',

a Marxist would point to the sexual division of labor and the implications of this

division for power differentials between women and men. A central concern of

marxist feminism, therefore, has been to determine how the institution of the family

and the women's domestic labor are structured by, and reproduce, the sexual

division of labor (Humm, 1992, p. 87).

The second word is class. The word class in this study referring to class

structure. In Marxism the Unity of Theory and Practice (1954), class structure is the

synonym of the Marxian use term of “relation of production”. Class is the key

feature of any society which a Marxist investigates before any other data, this gives

an understanding of the basic structure of society. There are two ways in which

Marxism implicitly defines classes (p.20).

First of all, they are defined by the function they fulfil in the society's

process of production, and not primarily by the distribution of income and

other benefits. Inequalities of distribution and opportunities, though

assumed to be part of every division of society into different classes, are

seen more as a by-product of the social division of labor, not as its chief


5

distinguishing characteristic. However, the very existence of inequalities

leads to the second method of defining classes that Marxism uses. Marxism

asserts that all relationship between classes is necessarily exploitative

relationship; there are always some classes who carry the main burden of

labor while enjoying the smallest share of the social product, while other

classes live in comparative leisure and reap the greatest material benefits

(Meyer, p.20).

The last word is class struggle. “The theory of class struggle is configured

as a general theory of social conflict” (Marx & Engels as cited in Losurdo, 2016,

pp. 43). After the emergences of the class structure in society, there are class

conflicts that form the basis of class struggle. Class conflict becomes the

background of class struggle. In Introduction to Marxist Theory, class struggle is

the human or social expression of the conflict of economic forces. The struggle of

economic class has become the medium of dialectic that has operated in history.

Dialectic is expressed as the modes of production conflicting with property

relations, and as a conflict of classes (Mayo, 1960, p. 93).


6

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In this chapter, the researcher presents the related studies and theories that

are used to analyze the poem further. This chapter is divided into four parts. In the

first part, the researcher discusses the related studies appropriate to this study and

second part, the researcher shows some theories that could support and strengthen

this study’s statement. The theories consist of marxist feminism to give an

understanding of women’s oppression under capitalism. The next theory used is a

theory on class, it helps to specify the women’s social class that presented in “Two

Women”. Theory of identity also applied in this study to give the formation of the

women characters in the poem. The last theory used is theory of patriarchy, it helps

to analyse the women’s description in the patriarchal society. The third part reviews

related backgrounds that relevant to this study: Chile’s government economic

system and class structure in the late 20th century. The last part consists of a

theoretical framework, the researcher explains the theories which are used in

finding the answer to the problem and formulates the thesis statement.

A. Review of Related Studies

This chapter discusses previous works on the same topic that are related to

this study. The reviewed studies consist of academic journals from Barbara


7

Weinstein entitled They Don’t Even Look like Women Workers: Femininity and

Class in Twentieth-Century Latin America and Margaret Power entitled Class and

Gender in the Anti-Allende Woman’s Movement: Chile 1970-1973.

In They Don’t Even Look like Women Workers: Femininity and Class in

Twentieth-Century Latin America, Weinstein analyzed the identity of working-

class women. The domestication on woman working class that woman worker

became a coarse or unfortunate creature who worked only out of necessity.

Laboring at lower wages in less-skilled jobs, she undermined men’s earning power

while exposing herself to sexual abuse. Upon entering the factory, she faced a

monotonous work routine in a dead-end, semiskilled occupation. For most women,

the promise of success as a skilled, efficient, and properly feminine household

manager must have been much more attractive.

While Power analyzed about cross-class woman movement refusing

Allende government. Before Allende rules Chile, people live in a huge gap in social

structure and condition. Later on, Chile is ruled by Allende, who socialist and

concerns to the workers, peasant, and women. He wants to make equality. However,

there is an economic crisis that makes people in Chile are more suffer and they

blame the problems on the socialist government. Therefore, the working-class

woman becomes the opposition to Allende’s government along with the upper-class

women.

The problem of the two studies are different but complement each other.

Weinstein’s study poses a question about how the working-class woman responds

to the domestication of women. Women’s association with the domestic sphere


8

provided them with few resources to shape an alternative to the SESI (Industrial

Social Service) ideal. Whereas, Power’s question focuses on how the opposition

political parties used gender to organize working-class women against the Allende

government using ostensibly on class interests.

In order to get the answer to the question above, both of the studies use the

feminism approach. It makes other sorts of political identities and alliances, and it

is a powerful build to any feminist movement that might cut across classes and

create lines of solidarity based on gender.

Weinstein’s study concludes that though SESI explicitly sought to create

“social peace” through its programs, the women who graduated from these courses

may well have urged their husbands or sons to strike for better wages and thus

provide a more “middle-class” lifestyle. What they did not do, in any discernible

way, is challenging the dominant (disparaging) representations of working women,

or question the exaltation of the middle-class housewife as the embodiment of

femininity.

Power’s study concludes about women’s political consciousness that class

alone will not define a woman’s politics. The opposition took full advantage of the

Allende government’s failure to prioritize working-class women. While the

socialist government sublimated gender to class, the opposition negated class and

stressed gender as an organizing strategy. It laid full blame for the economic

problems that affected women on the socialist government and heralded women, as

mothers, as the symbol of resistance to gender oppression.


9

Those studies are closely related to this study. Their discussions help

analyze women’s identities using the feminist approach. However, they have not

answered the problem in this study to examine the description of women in the

poem to reveal the class struggle. Therefore, this study develops the previous

studies using marxist feminism approach in order to get the answer.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theory of Marxist Feminism

Marxist Feminisms extend the critique of class developed by Marx and

Engels into a feminist history of the material and economic subordination of

women. Marxist Feminism concepts can be applied correctly to women's situation,

for example, whether women did form a distinct sex-class, and how far patriarchy

continues to reproduce itself in a similar way over time. By widening the Marxist

concept of reproduction to include household labor and childcare, feminists made

a major contribution to the understanding of the interaction of gender and economy

(Humm, 1992, p. 87).

Marxist feminism deals with the relations of gender and the oppression of

women in contemporary capitalist society. It involves an emphasis on the relations

between capitalism and the oppression of women. It will require awareness of the

specific oppression of women in capitalist relations of production (Humm, 1992, p.

113).

Humm gives the general description and understanding of Marxist

feminism. Thus, to make the theory is more specified, the researcher also used the


10

Marxist feminism theory by Rosemary Hennessy in Materialist Feminism: A

Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives. The book discusses the

relationship between feminism and marxism to ideas about democracy and

socialism. Moreover, this book explains the relationship of marxist and feminist

perspectives to each other in the context of contemporary social movements in Latin

America.

Marxist feminism discussion cannot be separated from social movements

based on it as dynamic, developing, and self-correcting while perceiving others as

unable to overcome previous weaknesses. Thus, Marxism is often seen by feminist

critics as inherently economic, reductionist, and gender blind, whereas Marxist

criticism of feminism often regards it as white, middle class, “First World”, and

reformist (Hennessy, 1997, p. 305). “The issue of gender is not separable from that

of the proper unit of class analysis that is, whether it should be the individual or the

household” (Goldthorpe as cited in Crompton, 1989, p. 571). Marshalll also

explains further that “Classes and class phenomena are conditioned by the peculiar

pattern of women's participation (however intermittent) in the market for paid

labour ... class structures, and the market processes behind them are gendered”.

Thus, gender should be included within the framework of class analysis (Marshall

et al. as cited in Crompton, 1989, p. 574).

Latin American Marxist-feminists point out any particular contribution that

women's organizing or feminism can make toward the class struggle and the

building of socialism. However, they explicitly discuss these contributions

and interconnections in their writings and documents. Activists in mixed

groups such as shantytown and trade union organizations in Chile, for

example, turn the traditional argument that feminism is divisive on its head

and argue instead that men and women will remain divided unless they

engage in a common political project that acknowledges women's


11

subordination and directly confronts machismo. A feminist perspective thus,

can make the class struggle more efficient (Hennessy, 1997, p. 303).

The central knot of feminist practice is how to link practical (women's)

interests derived from the existing gender division of labor and strategic (feminist)

gender interests derived from a critique of the existing gender hierarchy. Chilean

feminists have attempted to do so when they link authoritarianism in the family to

authoritarianism (dictatorship) in society and Nicaraguan feminists do when they

link women's demands to the overall success of the revolution (Hennessy, 1997, p.

302).

2. Theory on Class

The word “class” is originated and introduced by Roman censors. The word

class is to divide the population into tax group, but they may not have anticipated

the eventful future of this category. Their classification implied at least the

possibility of evaluative distinction, on the one end of their classification were

assidui, who might well be proud of their 100,000 as on the other end were the

proletarii, whose only property consisted in their numerous offspring—proles—

and who were outdone only by the lumpenproletariat of the capitecensi¸ those

counted by their heads (Dahrendorf, 1966, p. 3).

In the eighteenth century, the word "class" was used by Ferguson and Millar

simply to distinguish social strata, rank, or wealth. Then in the nineteenth century,

Dahrenforf explains that the concept of class gradually took on a more definite

coloring. “Class of capitalists” makes it appears beside the “labouring class”, the

“rich” beside the “poor class”, the “bourgeois” beside the “proletariat”, which has


12

accompanied the concept of class from its Roman origins. Since the concept of

social class was first applied in the middle of the nineteenth century, its history has

been as eventful as that of the society for which it was designed (Dahrendorf, 1966,

p. 4).

Marx explained that there are two great classes that appear, which are

bourgeoisie and proletariat (Marx as cited in Bottomore, 2001, p. 85). Proletariat

according to Engels, is class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labor

and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life

and death, whose sole existence depends on the demand for labor – hence, on the

changing state of business, on the vagaries of unbridled competition. The

proletariat, or the class of proletarians, is, in a word, the working class of the 19th

century (Engels, 1847, p. 9). They are those who have none of the necessary

premises, equipment, materials, or the money to acquire these things, that are

needed to engage in production or exchange – to make a living on the market – and

can trade only their ability to work or labour power (Cabe, 2018, para. 5).

The other class is bourgeois, it is a class of people who own the social means

of production as their private property. Marx describes that the bourgeois is

dominating and exploiting the proletariat because of the means of production

(Dahrendorf, 1966, p.195). Holmstrom (1977) also stated that the owner of the

means of production can forces the worker to do unpaid surplus labor the product

of which they did not control, hence that they were exploited (p. 359). The class

distinction carries the further impact that the right to the appropriate product of the

labor of others partly defines the privileged class, and these societies legitimate


13

class distinctions with ideologies of natural superiority and inferiority (Young,

1988, p. 276).

After the emergences of the class structure in society, there are class

conflicts that form the basis of class struggle. Class conflict becomes the

background of class struggle. In Introduction to Marxist Theory, class struggle is

the human or social expression of the conflict of economic forces. The struggle of

economic class has become the medium of dialectic that has operated in history.

Dialectic is expressed as the modes of production conflicting with property

relations, and as a conflict of classes (Mayo, 1960, p. 93).

Marx noted that there had always been several classes, for example in

ancient Rome they have patricians, knights, plebians, and slaves. These complex

class structures thus could be fitted into the simple opposition of thesis and

antithesis which the dialectic requires that class could be reduced to two, which are

exploiting and exploited, or oppressor and oppressed (Mayo, 1960, p. 94). In Marx's

notion, the class struggle in a capitalist society would culminate in a proletarian

revolution. The revolution would be, ultimately, worldwide in scope and would be

violent in nature. In Marxist theory, the capitalist state is the organized power of

the exploiting class. There are two functions, the first is the perpetuation of the

economic system on which it is founded. Second is the suppression of the exploited

class. Regardless of its form, Marxist holds, whether monarchy, republic, or

corporate state, the capitalist state is a dictatorship of the capitalist class over the

working class (Decter, 1961, p. 24).


14

3. Theory of Identity

Identity is self-identical and according to Sudarshan, the formation of

identity is influenced by a wide range of factors, some of which person has the

power to choose and some of which are given to the person: who is someone in

relation to whom he lives his lives, what is the work he does, what is the community

of which he is a part, and so on. The identity will be shaped by the roles and

responsibilities that a person needs to fulfil (Sudarshan, 2005, p.2). Gardiner

(1981), also states that female identity is a process and many factors work on the

formation of identity, including the social relationship and society (p. 354). Identity

as Erikson states is also "from and manifested through social relationships, the

concept includes both a core configuration of personal character and one's

consciousness of that configuration" (Erikson as cited in Gardiner, 1981, p. 349-

350). Throughout women's lives, the self is defined through social relationships;

issues of fusion and merger of the self with others are significant, and ego and body

boundaries remain flexible (Gardiner, 1981, p. 352).

Sudarshan says that identity is something that concerns each person, and the

recognition that each has more than one identity that each of these identities co-

exist and overlap is widely accepted. In speaking of women, the ‘dual roles’ or

‘multiple roles’ they play include being a woman (Sudarshan, 2005, p. 1). She also

states that personal identity’ is a composite of several intersecting, even conflicting

identities (p. 1). Social roles are learned by identifications around their sense of

their identity that is, their self-concept, consolidates (Gardiner, 1981, p. 353). The

two main roles available to women are those of wife and mother, they assume


15

occupational status as well as denoting personal relationships (Gardiner, 1981, p.

354). According to Gardiner (1981) girl achieves her socially accepted roles

through marriage and motherhood, social and biological events that can occur

independently of a personal identity crisis and that do not require its resolution (p.

354).

4. Theory of Patriarchy

The oppression of women has some singular form discernible in the

universal or hegemonic structure of patriarchy or masculine domination (Butler,

1990, p. 6). In masculine culture, only men work in their families, while women do

not have a public role, this type is based on gender stereotypes. Everywhere we find

that women are excluded from certain crucial economic or political activities, that

their roles as wives and mothers are associated with lesser powers and prerogatives

than are the roles of men (Rosaldo and Louise, 1974, p. 3). Thus, men become

dominant in a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is “a system of social structures and

practices in which men, dominate, oppress, and exploit women” (Walbi as cited in

Shah, 2018, p. 19).

For Hofstede, “a masculine culture or masculine society is one that stresses

different expectations for men and women. In a masculine culture, men are expected

to be assertive, competitive, and focused on material success, while women are

expected to be nurturing and focused on people and quality of life” (Hofstede cited

in Lombardo, 2019, para. 4). According to Lévi-Strauss, “the masculine cultural

identity is established through an overt act of differentiation between patrilineal


16

clans, where the ‘difference’ in this relation is Hegelian — that is, one which

simultaneously distinguishes and binds” (Lévi-Strauss as cited in Butler, 1990, p.

51).

C. Review of Related Backgrounds

1. Chile’s Government System

“Two Women” uses a background in the late 20th century. This poem

involves the role of the government in running the system. The period of

government described in “Two Women” is before, during, and after the socialist

government ruled Chile.

a. Eduardo Frei Montalva’s Reign

Frei won the presidential election in 1964 from Christian Democratic Party

and ruled Chile until 1970. His slogan was “Revolution in Liberty”, he concerned

to raise the incomes of lower classes. These years were characterized by agrarian

reform law, the “Chileanization” considerable expansion of social services, increase

tax collection, and modernization of education (Falcoff, 1982, p. 324).

Falcoff said that in the first two years, Frei had considerable luck in the

implementation of the schemes that the U.S was in the first flush of romance with

democratic reform in Latin America. The level of interest and aid was raising and

Chile received the larges per capita share of resources in hemisphere. By 1968 until

1969, his luck has run out. Inflation began to rise again, the aid was cut, and the

Christian Democrats have split (Falcoff, 1982, p. 324-325).


17

The Frei administration has had strong support from the mid-class at least

in its early years, but some of the middle class also has been marginalized by the

government to seek the support of the peasants and the urban underemployed, until

then on the margins of the political scene (Carmagnani et al, 2019, para. 4). The

reformist program of the Frei Government has given the poorer people an incentive

to play an active role in political life. This increase in political participation has led

to further radicalisation not only of the Communist and Socialist parties, but also of

some of the Radicals and Christian Democrats. This party group and left-wing

group formed a coalition of popular unity (Unidad Popular) in 1969, proposing a

socialist and an eligible Marxist as its presidential candidate, Salvador Allende

Gossens (Carmagnani et al, 2019, para. 6).

b. Salvador Allende’s Reign

Salvador Allende was elected as the president and became the first socialist

president. He applied socialist system and formulated the Popular Unity’s program

when he assumed the presidency in 1970.

The goal of revolutionary process was a democratic, pluralist, and free

socialist society. The first phase to achieving this goal to liquidate the bases of

capitalist society: the fundamental task that the Popular Government has before it

is to end the domination of the imperialist, the monopolies, and the landowning

oligarchies in order to initiate the construction of socialism (Garreton, 1989, p. 24).

However, the socialist government caused a dispute with the bourgeoisie.

The socialist president regulates the ownership of the means of production and

eliminates the division of classes in society and also bourgeois' privileges.

Crummett in her academic journal explained that bourgeois class women move and

unite against the socialist government because of its regulation. How bourgeois


18

women take a role in overcoming the socialist government is to join and unite in El

Poder Femino (EPF). EPF united the wives, and the first move was to unite, second

to coordinate strategy, and third to attack (Crummett, 1977, p. 105). The upper class

women were largely responsible for the coordination and direction of EPF, and EPF

was under the leadership of the upper-class female (Crummett, 1977, p. 108).

Upper-class women whose husbands were important figures participate in EPF, and

because of their class status, these women were able to supply two essential

ingredients necessary to cultivate a large scale-organization which were the time

and money (Crummett, 1977, p. 108).

c. Augusto Pinochet’s Reign

New military regimes under Augusto Pinochet replacing Allende was began

in 1973, after the coup d'état. The coup was successfully carried out with the help

of bourgeois class women who united in the EPF and their slogan was "Women

Power". Unfortunately, their present goal is to use "Women Power" to support male

predominance in the family and to legitimize the government of the military junta

(Andreas, 1977, p. 123).

Chile applied capitalist model and economic development in South America

ever since the overthrown of Salvador Allende and the resulting military

dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (Hagenmeier, 2014, para. 1). By mid-1975, the

government under Pinochet decided that a return to free market capitalism was the

way to best combat inflation and the ongoing economic collapse. The Chilean

government returned ownership of confiscated property and businesses to their

previous owners. Wages were cut and social spending was slashed substantially.


19

Although business rebounded, there was also a period of speculation that followed.

This era was of great benefit to the financial conglomerates and foreign

multinational corporations. The economy of Chile grew robustly during the tenure

of President Pinochet whose rule ended in 1990 when democracy returned to the

country (Hagenmeier, 2014, para. 2). The period of military junta control and that

of Pinochet will remain controversial for years to come. The trampling of civil

rights and repression of the opposition are seen by many as a stain on the modern

political development of Chile (Hagenmeier, 2014, para. 3).

The regime within the coalition that takes over running the state, the armed

forces assume a dominant role by rupturing the political system and becoming

functionally involved in conducting state governance through their intuitional

hierarchy. The coalition is structured around the classes that predominate

economically and exercise control over the state apparatus through technocratic

teams. Garreton (1989) explained that the dominant coalition then sets up a project

for restructuring society by establishing new patterns and mechanisms of

accumulation and distribution and by reordering politics. The new political order,

which is characterized by its authoritarian and exclusionary pattern, requires the use

of repressive force to eliminate, dismantle, or control the political and class

organizations of popular sectors as well the political organizations surviving from

the military representing the preceeding period (p. 46).


20

2. Chile’s Class Structure

During colonial days and for a long time after independence, Chile had a

rigid society consisting of a privileged landowning aristocracy, descended from the

original Spanish settlers, and a lower class of peasants and domestic servants. The

aristocrats, bound together in the National Agricultural Society, dominated the

government and led the lives (Buchot, 2019, para. 1). In the latter part of the 19th

century, the middle class began to increase in size new groups, among them traders,

manufacturers, professional people, and intellectuals began to swell the ranks of the

middle class and to press for social reforms. In 1920 there was an organized and

impatient working class that lacked the ingrained loyalty to the landlords that had

developed in the tenant farmer class (Buchot, 2019, para. 2). All these groups called

for the government's attention and started to encourage social and economic change.

Buchot explained that Chile's social structure could be roughly divided into three

classes.

a. Upper Class

The first is the upper class, which consists of the old landed aristocracy, also

more recently, a rich group of industrialists, merchants, politicians, and military

men. Bunchot states though these two segments of the upper class have power and

prestige in common, they are often at odds politically and economically. Both

groups supported the imposition of military rule, but by the end of the 1980s, many

backed the restoration of democratic politics (2019, para. 3).


21

b. Middle Class

There is a vast array of incomes, occupations, and interests in the middle

class, largely urban. It is composed of professionals, teachers and university

professors, civil servants, many private employers, and some small merchants,

industrialists, and investors. Many members of the middle class benefited from

Chile’s rapid economic growth in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s (2019,

para. 5).

c. Lower Class

The last is the lower class which consists of farm laborers, crafts workers,

factory workers, and miners. This is the class that backed Salvador Allende’s

coalition before 1973, which suffered the most from the policies of the military

regime, and that again turned to left-wing parties after the end of military rule in

1990 (2019, para. 4). The reason why they supported Allende it is quite clear to

change social conditions as well the economy. The lower classes have high hopes

for their fate from a president socialist.

D. Theoretical Framework

This study entitled Women as the Reflection of Class Struggle in the “Two

Women” Poem by an Anonymous Chilean Author. This study's focus is on the class

struggles experienced by the women characters in “Two Women”. This study has

three objectives to answer the question or problem formulation. The theories and

background presented in this chapter are used to help analyze and get the answer.

The first theory used is marxist feminism. Since “Two Women” poem talks about


22

the contrasting life between the bourgeois and the proletariat or their class structure,

this theory is needed to give an understanding of the interaction of gender and

economy. This theory also fulfils women’s identities related to material things.

The theory of class also used in this study. This theory gives an

understanding of class subordination in society. This theory helps the researcher

define women's social classes in the poem. Moreover, this theory provides an

understanding of what is called class struggle and its impact and outcome. This

theory is used to analyze what form of class struggle do the women characters faced

in the poem.

The next theory is theory of identity. This theory helps the researcher to

build the formation of the women characters in the poem. This theory connects how

someone’s identity is built with the connection of gender in society. This theory

also helps the researcher to see how the two characters in the poem define and value

themselves.

The last theory applied is the theory of patriarchy. Since the poem talks

about women’s lives in a capitalist patriarchal society, this theory is added to

focusing on the reason why the women characters only valued as their gender roles.

Moreover, this theory also gives an explanation of male dominance in society.

The researcher also presents some related background in this part that is

related to the problems, in order to make this research more understandable

considering "Two Women" is categorical as a narrative poem that expresses the

historical fiction and can be called as prose fiction. The discussion cannot be


23

separated from the historical context. The related background contains a short

introductory to Chile’s government and economic systems and class structure. By

conducting this study, the researcher means to identify the issue in capitalist society

and answer the critical problem formulation to maximize understanding it.


24

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The main object that is explored in this study is a poem entitled “Two

Women”. This poem was written in 1973 by an anonymous working-class Chilean

author, shortly after Chile’s socialist president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown.

The researcher got the poem as the primary data that is observed in this study from

https://carla.umn.edu with permission from Sojourners. A US military translated

the work and brought it with her when she was forced to leave Chile. “Two Women”

poem has two narrators each narrator represents her social class. The first woman

as a bourgeois and the second woman as a proletariat. Each stanza consists of 2

lines which are bourgeois and proletariat consecutively. The poet also distinguishes

the form of each narrator to avoid confusion when reading the poem. The first

woman is written in regular type, and the second woman is written in italic type,

thus this poem involves two people to read. This poem talks about the class

struggles experienced by both women characters. It shows how patriarchy, property

rights, and the oppressive nature of the socioeconomic class system define the

relationship between two women, and the ruling class isolated from the harsh

realities of the ‘other’.


25

B. Approach of the Study

This study applies marxist feminism approach. This approach is suitable for

this study because marxist feminism does connect women’s oppression to

capitalism as a class system and refuse to limit feminist practice to changing forms

of consciousness or discourse. This approach sees the continuous historical

connections between women’s oppression and capitalism, ultimately leading to the

elimination of class. This approach is used to explain the social structures through

which women are exploited and oppressed. (Hennesy, 1997, p. 3).

C. Method of the Study

This study is part of qualitative research, since the study explains the work

of in-depth analysis and critical thinking, and uses non-numeric data to provide

answers. Moreover, the primary purpose of this study is to find out the class

struggles that women characters experienced in “Two Women”. In order to get the

answer, the researcher uses library research to analyze the problems. In library

research, the researcher gains some materials as the source of information in order

to analyze the literary work. The researcher uses much data to have the research

understandable. There are two sources of data that are primary and secondary. The

primary data is the work itself which is “Two Women” poem and the secondary

data belongs to other researchers, which are the theory of marxist feminism and

theory on class, and some relevant books on marxist feminism approach. The

researcher also surfs the internet to find the review, collect the data, and journal.


26

There are four steps that the researcher used to analyze the poem. First, the

researcher does close reading to get a better understanding of the work. Second, the

researcher puts the focus and attention on the theme, which is a class struggle

through marxist feminism approach. Third, the researcher analyzes the problems.

Last, the researcher draws the conclusion of the analysis.


27

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

The analysis of the findings is provided in this chapter. This analysis is

divided into four parts. The first part consists of the full text, a brief summary, and

explication of the poem. These are presented in the first part before the researcher

analyzes the formulation of the problems. Then, the next parts answer each question

stated in the problem formulation. The second part discusses the women characters

and their social classes that are presented in "Two Women". The third part is to find

out the forms of class and gender struggles experienced by women. The last part

analyzes the women's responses to class and gender struggles.

A. The Poem, the Summary, and Explication of the Poem

1. The Full Text of the Poem

Two Women

I am a woman.

I am a woman.

I am a woman born of a woman whose man owned a factory.

I am a woman born of a woman whose man labored in a factory.

I am a woman whose man wore silk suits, who constantly watched his weight.

I am a woman whose man wore tattered clothing, whose heart was constantly

strangled by hunger.

I am a woman who watched two babies grow into beautiful children.

I am a woman who watched two babies die because there was no milk.


28

I am a woman who watched twins grow into popular college students with summers

abroad.

I am a woman who watched three children grow, but with bellies stretched

from no food.

But then there was a man;

But then there was a man;

And he talk about the peasant getting richer by my family getting poorer.

And he told me of days that would be better, and he made the days better.

We had to eat rice.

We had rice.

We had to eat beans!

We had beans.

My children no longer given summer visas to Europe.

My children no longer cried themselves to sleep.

And I felt like a peasant.

And I felt like a woman.

A peasant with a dull, hard, unexciting life.

Like a woman with a life that sometimes allowed a song.

And I saw a man.

And I saw a man.

And together we began to plot with the hope of the return to freedom.

I saw his heart begin to beat with hope of freedom, at last.

Someday, the return to freedom.

Someday freedom.

And then,

But then,

One day,

One day,

There were planes overhead and guns firing close by.

There were planes overhead and guns firing in the distance.


29

I gathered my children and went home.

I gathered my children and ran.

And guns moved farther and farther away.

But the guns moved closer and closer.

And then, they announced that freedom had been restored!

And then they came, young boys really.

They came into my home along with my man.

They came and found my man.

Those men whose money was almost gone --

They found all of the men whose lives were almost their own.

And we all had drinks to celebrate.

And they shot them all.

The most wonderful martinis.

They shot my man.

And then they asked us to dance.

And then they came for me.

Me.

For me, the woman.

And my sisters.

For my sisters.

And then they took us,

Men they took us,

They took us to dinner at a small, private club.

They stripped from us the dignity we had gained.

And they treated us to beef.

And then they raped us.

It was one course after another.

One after another they came after us.

We nearly burst we were so full.

Lunging, plunging – sisters bleeding, sisters dying.

It was magnificent to be free again!


30

It was hardly a relief to have survived.

The beans have almost disappeared now.

The beans have disappeared.

The rice – I’ve replaced it with chicken or steak. The rice, I cannot find it.

And the parties continues night after night to make up for all the time wasted.

And my silent tears are joined once more by the midnight cries of my children.

And I feel like a woman again.

They say, I am a woman.

2. The Summary and Explication of the Poem

Before conducting the analysis of the poem on questions stated in the

problem formulation, this part is intended to summarize the poem and give the

explication of the topography of the poem. The poem that is analyzed entitled "Two

Women" written in 1973 by a working-class Chilean author, shortly after the

socialist president, Salvador Allende was overthrown. "Two Women" uses first

person point of view. The poem also has two narrators, each narrator represents her

social class—the first woman as a bourgeois and the second woman as a proletariat.

The poem has 38 stanzas, with each stanza consist of 2 lines which is bourgeois and

proletariat consecutively. The arrangement of line in the "Two Women" poem

belongs to the couplet form because each stanza consists of a pair of lines. The

couplet is the shortest stanza form and usually rhymed. The poet also distinguishes

the form of each narrator to avoid confusion when reading the poem, the first

woman is written in regular type, and the second woman is written in italic type and

intended line, thus this poem involves two people to read.


31

a. Stanza 1-5

“Two Women” belongs to a narrative poem, it narrates the story of class

conflicts and struggles are faced by the two female characters with different social

classes. The class distinction makes economy inequality and raises the class conflict

and struggle. The introductory part of the poem begins with stanza 1 until 5.

Through these stanzas, the poet gives family background and social classes to

discover more about the female characters.

b. Stanza 6-12

Considering that a working-class Chilean author wrote this poem, the poem

briefly summarizes Chile's social condition before and after socialist president was

overthrown. This poem is also seen as a representation inspired by the social

condition in which the working class face hunger and suffer from life. The poem

set time and place also tells the story of that era, the history of human struggle in

capitalist society. Thus, this poem is inseparable from its historical context. The

poem also tells about the socialist president who gives the new hope for the

proletariat pleasure of living the socialist dream. The socialist president's presence

makes the proletariat's life better than before though a socio-political struggle is

taking place.

c. Stanza 13-21

Not long after the socialist president comes to power, another man appears

in the poem. Both women in the poem have a man figure as their saviour to bring


32

the hope of life. The new man figure that appears in stanza 13 until 21 is a man that

brings back the glory of bourgeois' class privileges. He appears in the poem and

gives a significant impact on women’s life. Along with the bourgeois woman's

movement, they successfully reverse the condition. Then, the socialist president is

overthrown.

d. Stanza 22-33

Under his new government, the proletariat is increasingly miserable because

there are a lot of oppressions and injustices. His government is dictatorial and

repressive towards the proletariat. Although, he celebrates his new power along

with the bourgeois woman who helps him gain power with steps take to overthrow

the socialist president. They make party when the proletariat experiences the crush,

they ignore it as if the proletariat is nothing.

e. Stanza 34-38

Later, the bourgeois woman gets everything she wants back, while the

proletariat woman lives miserably. She lost more than before, sadly there is

nothing she could do. Everything owned by the proletariat woman has been taken

away from her, even her closest people in the family are gone. She has no hope of

getting on with life.


33

B. The Description of Women Characters and Their Social Class Presented

in “Two Women”

In this first part of the discussion, the researcher analyzes two women

characters that appear in the poem. The women in the poem both do not have names,

so the researcher calls them as the first and the second woman. The first woman is

written in regular type while the second woman in italic type.

1. The First Woman

a. Social Class

The first thing to be discussed is the social class in the poem represented by

women characters. Social class is social ranking or stratification based on economic

relations. Marx explained that there are two great classes that appear, which are

bourgeoisie and proletariat (Marx as cited in Bottomore, 2001, p. 85). The first

woman in “Two Women” belongs to bourgeoisie because she has the means of

production. The evidence can be found as follows:

I am a woman born of a woman whose man owned a factory

(stanza 2, line 1).

The line above becomes the opening which offers an introduction to the

character, it begins with the first woman in the poem which is the daughter of the

owner of production. This line provides an explanation about two women in a

different generation, which is the mother-daughter bond. This line focuses more on

women, women are not only as background in the poem but also gives different role

and portrayal of life as mother and daughter. The woman from the old generation

is the mother, was married to the man who owns the production and has a daughter


34

after they were married. By reason of having a means of production husband, this

makes the woman from the old generation belongs to bourgeois. It happened in a

patriarchal society that a breadwinner would classify his family member in the same

social class. Considering that female identity is a process, then the first identity of

a young generation of a woman is created from a mother to daughter relationship

or mother-daughter bond. An unmarried daughter remains united with her family

until she marries a man, then her identity will be separated from her family and then

her identity follows the husband. The second stanza's explanation makes the first

woman belong to bourgeois because she has no husband yet in that stanza. Her

social class is shaped by her father's presence as a breadwinner in her family that

also defines her social class. This line gives the background of the woman's social

class presented in the poem. According to Marx’s theory, bourgeois is class of

people in bourgeois society who own the social means of production as their private

property (Dahrendorf, 1966, p.195).

In the capitalist society, the owner of the production belongs to the upper

class or bourgeoisie even she does not work or produce something. The reason is

that the owner of the means of production is in the dominant position in the

capitalist system. The owner of the means of production can forces the worker to

do unpaid surplus labor the product of which they did not control, hence that they

were exploited (Holmstrom, 1977, p. 359). Marx also describes that the bourgeois

is dominating and exploiting the proletariat because of the means of production

(Dahrendorf, 1966, p.195).


35

The other characteristic of the bourgeoisie is exploitative. This term is not

just simply consisting of an unequal distribution of social wealth or workers are

exploited because they get so much less of the pie than do capitalists (Holmstrom,

1977, p. 353). Holmstrom explains more about what exploitation is according to

Marx’s theory. That there are four features of exploitation, “that it involves forced,

surplus, and unpaid labor, the product of which is not under the producers' control”

(Holmstrom, 1977, p. 359).

Since capitalist is a system of commodity production, then the profit is the

purpose (Holmstrom, 1977, p. 356). However, what workers really sell to the

capitalists, according to Marx, is not labor, but the capacity to labor or labor power

(p.357). Furthermore, Holmstrom explains that workers who have once sold their

labor power to the owners of the means of production are then forced by them to do

non-necessary surplus labor during part of the workday (p.357). The evidence of

the exploitation can be found in the poem as follow:

I am a woman whose man wore silk suits, who constantly watched his

weight.

I am a woman whose man wore tattered clothing, whose heart was

constantly strangled by hunger.

(stanza 3, line 1-2).

The evidence above illustrates how the lives of the first woman and the

second woman are different. The poet pictures the women's life use the first point

of view, and each also written in different typewriting. Each narrator tells her own

story using their perspective. The result is the content that the poet made give the

contrast to one another deal with the economic background. The typewriting is not

only to differ the narrator but closely structured with distinctly different


36

characteristics. Both narrators tell about the same points and the same discussion

which are men's cloth. However, in the same discussion there arises the inequality

contained in the lines, silk suits and tattered clothing. The function of the two

narrators and different typewriting in couplet form is to give a story with significant

contrast. The second woman has a life that is far from decent. In the third stanza,

the men figures that appear in the poem are the husband of both characters. The first

woman married a man with the same social class as a bourgeois, while the second

woman married to proletariat. The men figures that appear in the third stanza are

considered the husband because in the next following stanza both women have the

children from the men figures in the third stanza. The men figures are also claimed

as their own husband by the clause "I am a woman whose man wore silk suits",

there is no more a claim that it is a man from the woman in the previous generation

which is her mother's husband. The man that appears in the third stanza is the first

woman's husband and can be analyzed further because they have their children in

the poem.

The couplet form in the third stanza gives the contrast of life in both women.

The first woman life in prosperity while the second woman is not. The lines in the

third stanza give the description that the first woman married to bourgeois man by

the characteristic of the man's appearance. Unlike the second woman's husband, he

wears the silk suit, while the second woman's husband wears tattered clothing. The

men's clothing gives the significant sign that they are both different social classes.

The bourgeois and proletariat live in different circumstances, the proletariat can be

easily exploited by the bourgeois. Holmstrom explains when x exploits y, y is


37

forced to do unnecessary, unpaid labor and does not control the product of that labor

(Holmstrom, 1977, p. 364). Thus, their life is different because of their different

social classes. The Bourgeois is the owner of means of production which dominates

the control of production and exploits the workers. He exploits workers by forced,

surplus, and unpaid labor, the product of which is not under the producers' control.

The first woman is classified as a bourgeois, her life is happy with all the

needs that are met while her worker lives below the decent standard because of the

exploitation. The essential "condition of the existence and the domination of the

bourgeois class is the accumulation of wealth in the hands of private persons” (Karl

Marx as cited in Dahrendorf, 1966, p. 12). Thus, there are three characteristics of

the first woman as a bourgeois. The first one is because she is the daughter of the

owner of means of production. The second reason because she also married to a

bourgeois man. The last characteristic is exploitative.

b. Identities

The next description discussed is identity. The first woman's identity is

shaped by the opposite sex which is the man. There are many men figures that

appear in the "Two Women" poem that the role is so important to give the woman's

identity. The men figures appear in the poem such as father, husband, and president.

All of them use the term only as a man in the poem, and the first woman identifies

herself related to the men figures because she does not have her own identity.

Identity is self-identical and according to Sudarshan, the formation of

identity is influenced by a wide range of factors, some of which person has the


38

power to choose and some of which are given to the person: who is someone in

relation to whom he lives his lives, what is the work he does, what is the community

of which he is a part, and so on. The identity will be shaped by the roles and

responsibilities that a person needs to fulfil (Sudarshan, 2005, p.2). Gardiner

(1981), also states that female identity is a process and many factors work on the

formation of identity, including the social relationship and society (p. 354). He

believes that an individual's primary identity, formed in early childhood, is enacted

and confirmed through infantile identifications and the acquisition of appropriate

social roles (p. 356). Here the researcher cites the lines of the poem.

I am a woman.

(stanza 1, line 1).

I am a woman born of a woman whose man owned a factory.

(stanza 2, line 1).

I am a woman whose man wore silk suits, who constantly watched his

weight.

(stanza 3, line 1).

I am a woman who watched two babies grow into beautiful children.

(stanza 4, line 1).

I am a woman who watched twins grow into popular college students with

summer abroad.

(stanza 5, line 1).

The lines above are the part of introduction that introduces the main

character as a woman. The introduction of the characters in the poem begins with

the statement that she is a woman, and are repeated until the fifth stanza. The

purpose of the repetition on the clause I am a woman starts from first until fifth

stanza is to emphasize and bring the idea of self-identification. The identity of the

first woman is shaped firstly in family. The first woman was born as a bourgeois


39

because her father is the owner of the means of production. Considering that female

identity is a process (Gardiner, 1981, p. 354), the self-identification of the woman

continues throughout the poem. Later, the first woman also married a wealthy man

and has two children. The first woman's husband appears in stanza 3 and her

children in stanza 4 until 5. The first woman's life is perfect because she has a rich

husband and well-grown children who give the image of a happy family. Moreover,

she never felt deprived and always gets the best things in her life.

The researcher analyzes that woman's identity also cannot be separated from

the men figures, even the first woman's mother cannot define her identity as an

independent individual but as a wife of rich man. Woman in the poem cannot define

her own identity, but it is shaped by the man's presence in the poem. The line above

explains that the second woman is the daughter of the man with the means of

production, and she describes herself by connecting her relationship with others.

She never even talks about herself in the poem. The second woman also positions

and identifies herself as the wife of a wealthy husband. Thus, the first woman’s

identity is taken from the man. The first woman faces an identity crisis that her

identity gain from another individual relation. Erikson develops the idea of identity

crisis, the resolution of the identity crisis leads to "final self-definition, to

irreversible role patterns, and thus to commitments 'for life', although in

pathological cases identity formation may fail and the person suffers from what is

called as "identity diffusion" (Erikson as cited in Gardiner, 1981, p. 349). The first

woman gets her identity as a woman through social roles that develop in society.

The first woman enjoys her social role as a woman. According to Gardiner (1981)


40

girl achieves her socially accepted roles through marriage and motherhood, social

and biological events that can occur independently of a personal identity crisis and

that do not require its resolution (p. 354).

The first woman's identity also centered on her social roles. She positions

herself as a good wife and mother for her children and husband. She takes care of

everything related to her gender role as a woman. Sudarshan says that identity is

something that concerns each person, and the recognition that each has more than

one identity that each of these identities co-exist and overlap is widely accepted. In

speaking of women, the ‘dual roles’ or ‘multiple roles’ they play include being a

woman (Sudarshan, 2005, p. 1). She also states that personal identity’ is a composite

of several intersecting, even conflicting identities (p. 1). The first woman also has

dual roles which are as a wife and mother. Her role as a mother is distinct from a

wife. Mother role tends to take care of her children such as feed her babies, teach

them the good things, protect them from the destructive influence and make sure to

raise her children well, while wife's role tends to service and also could be partner

in ritual as Sudarshan states (p. 1-2). Both of these roles were taken by the first

woman well, given how she had dedicated herself as a wife and mother, then her

identity was formed as a wife of a wealthy husband and mother of her children.

Therefore, when she talks about herself, she is inseparable from the binding

obligations and forms her identity as a wife as well as a mother. The first woman

gets those two roles, that her concern is about her family, but both roles are still in

the domestic sphere. The gender identity of the first woman in the poem is also tied


41

to the gender role as a woman in a patriarchal society that focuses on the domestic

sphere and not the public one even once.

2. The Second Woman

a. Social Class

Dahrendorf (1966) put into words that the formation of classes always

means of the organization of common interest in the sphere of politics. Classes are

political groups united by a common interest (p. 16). He also explains that the

substance of class interests, in so far as they are based on the economic positions of

given groups, can be expressed in various ways. To begin with, the immediate

interest of the proletariat is the wage, and the bourgeoisie is the profit (p.15).

The second woman in the “Two Women” belongs to the proletariat.

According to Mayo, in his book Introduction to Marxist Theory the proletariat are

those who work for wages and are forced to do so because they are without

ownership of the means of production (1960, p. 98). The second woman belongs

to proletariat because her father works in the factory and sells his labor power.

Holmstrom stated that in capitalist system, the proletariat works a full day and

receives a wage which suggests that the wage is payment for a day's labor even

though what he really sells is not labor but the capacity to labor (1977, p. 357). The

evidence of the second woman as the proletariat can found as follow:

I am a woman born of a woman whose man labored in a factory.

(stanza 2, line 2).


42

Like the first woman, the second woman also begins her story with the same

description of her identity that reveals her class status. The portrayal and

introduction of the main character begin with the statement that she is a woman.

Afterward, the poet adds particular details to show the second woman's background

as described in the family image. The second woman is the child of a mother who

was married to wage labor. The mother of the second woman does not have many

descriptions or information of her own, explained that her father was a factory

worker and her mother only as a wife. Because born of a father who worked in the

factory, the second woman has become the proletariat. The description of the

second woman's family image above is used to determine the second woman's

position since she was born. She belongs to proletariat class because her father is

wage labor and does not have the means of productions. He works hard all day long

and only received a very minimum wage even for basic daily needs is not enough

to meet. However, he keeps work there because he does not have any option and

anything else to do beside sells his labor power. Proletariat wants to work at the

factory even with the cheap wage because they have to make a living. They are

those who have none of the necessary premises, equipment, materials, or the money

to acquire these things, that are needed to engage in production or exchange – to

make a living on the market – and can trade only their ability to work or labour

power (Cabe, 2018, para. 5).

I am a woman whose man wore tattered clothing, whose heart was

constantly strangled by hunger.

(stanza 3, line 2)

I am a woman who watched two babies die because there was no milk.

(stanza 4, line 2)


43

I am a woman who watched three children grow, but with bellies stretched

from no food.

(stanza 5, line 2)

After introducing the character with the family image, the next stanzas

illustrate more clearly the position of the second woman in the social class. The

second woman's description as the proletariat is seen when the poet writes the

following words and phrases; tattered clothing, hunger, die, no milk, and no food.

These words and phrases that the poet uses are links with the ideas of poverty. These

three lines also show how the second woman lives as a proletariat whose needs are

essentially insufficient. The man's clothing worn is not appropriate because it is old

and torn, even the children starve to death because the money generated from

working in factories cannot meet all the necessities of life. All this happened

because the proletariat did not have the means of production works under the

bourgeoisie which is the owners of the means of production and exploited.

Holmstorm states that in capitalism, workers are under the domination of

capitalists (1977, p. 358). The result is the worker or the wage labor can easily be

exploited. The worker is forced to do unpaid surplus labor and he cannot control

the production and keeps working based on the owner of the means of production’s

order. Profits come from surplus value and the extraction of surplus value involves

the appropriation of the product of forced, unpaid, surplus labor (Holmstorm, 1977,

p. 358).

The product of the workers' surplus, unpaid and forced labor, is then

appropriated by the owner of labor power and the means of production, the

capitalist. This surplus value is the source of their profit. The actual

producers have no control over the surplus. According to Marx's theory, the

profits of capitalists are generated by surplus, unpaid, and forced labor, the


44

product of which the producers do not control. It is the fact that the income

is derived through forced, unpaid, surplus labor, the product of which the

producers do not control, which makes it exploitative (Holmstorm, 1977, p.

358-359).

The second woman’s man is exploited because he must sell their labor

power to the capitalist, the productive activity, and the very capacity for life comes

under the control of the capitalist. Moreover, he has a basic salary that is not worth

Documents

WOMEN AS THE REFLECTION OF CLASS STRUGGLES ...repository.usd.ac.id/37712/2/164214037_full.pdfpada tema yaitu perjuangan kelas melalui pendekatan feminisme marxis. Ketiga, peneliti