19世纪初美国工人阶级的性别矛盾

Gender Tensions within the American Working Class in the Early 19^(th) Century

19世纪初,美国工人阶级政治带有明显性别化色彩。在工人运动中占主导地位的男性工人,以道德眼光批判妇女从事工资劳动的弊端,谴责资本主义工厂制,以男性气概和家庭地位为依据向资本家提出工资诉求,以对理想性别秩序的期待为标准选择是否与女工合作。他们把女工视为“他者”而非阶级盟友,对“工人阶级”持一种狭隘认识。而在工人运动中处于边缘地位的女工群体,为争取支持,不得不迎合男工的性别政治,用“家内主义”和道德话语来伸张自身权益。性别矛盾扰乱了工人对资本主义劳资冲突本质的认识,妨碍了工人阶级的团结,体现了美国早期工人运动的不成熟。

In the early 19^(th)century,the class politics of American working class was distinctly gendered.Male workers,who dominated the labor movement,criticized the factory system and women’s wage labor from a moral perspective,demanded higher wages on the grounds of their masculine and family status,and chose whether to support female workers’struggles based on their expectation of an ideal gender order.They held a narrow view of the“working class”,regarding female workers as“others”rather than class allies.In order to gain support,female workers who were marginalized in the labor movement had to cater to the gender politics of male workers,and assert their rights and interests with domestic and moral discourse.Gender tensions disrupted workers’understanding of the nature of capitalist labor confl icts,hindered the working class solidarity,and refl ected the immaturity of the early labor movement in the United States.