The following are a few items showing Marxist interest in Ward’s Gynæcocentrism Theory.

1. The following article was published in Justice, 1909. Note the reference to Lester F. Ward’s ‘Gynocentric theory’.

2.  Li Da (1890–1966) was a Chinese Marxist philosopher who had a great influence on Mao Zedong. He began his career translating Lester F. Ward’s “Gynæcocentric Theory,” which appeared in Ward’s book Pure Sociology (1903).  The following quote is from Howard Chiang’s book The Making of the Human Sciences in China.

The following appeared in the Washington Evening Star –28 Feb 1889 – Thursday Page 6

The following appeared in the Star Tribune–13 Nov 1888 – Tuesday Page 4

The following appeared in Fair Play, Valley Falls, Kansas — 10 Nov 1888 – Sat Page 1

The following lengthy article appeared in the Sacramento Daily Record-Union, Saturday November 10, 1888.

The following item appeared in Wood County Reporter November 8 – 1888, and in several other newspapers of the day.

The following is from The Evening Sun, dated Wednesday 09 Oct, 1929, Page 4.

OUR “SEX ARISTOCRACY”

Bertrand Russell arrives with the announcement that our American civilization is the “most feminine since old Egypt,” and Constance Eaton, who has been peering at us curiously for the edification of the readers of the London Daily Telegraph reports that what we really have in America is an aristocracy, not of money, not of blood, nor brains, but of sex. Our men, she finds, place women on a pedestal—on a throne—and they take it seriously and proceed to govern. Man here is the worker. He is the peasant of the field, the brother of the clod, the artisan of the factory, and his mission is to sweat and toil and accumulate spoil to lay at the feet of the lady—the aristocrat who neither toils nor spins. She even does our thinking for us, for Constance Eaton is sure that our culture is wholly of the manufacture of the women. She puts it thus:

“She is a typical representative of the new American sex aristocracy. She has spent her life cultivating herself, body and mind, and when her husband gives over for a while the pursuit of the money which has made this possible to Join her in a holiday abroad, she expresses withering scorn for his lack of style, manners and culture.”

Thus it seems that men in America are in a bad way—pathetic tools of the women—and that our civilization is feminine. At first blush this seems tragic. But, on second thought, does not every one now know that woman is the stronger sex and that her domination makes for strength? These foreign visitors who pounce upon our women and their domination of the men have not found us very romantic or sentimental in International conferences nor on international battlefields. If this is due to our femininity, perhaps we may worry along.

* * * * 

SOURCE: The Reporter, 15 Apr 1907, Mon · Page 1.

* * *

Wisconson Salons Start “Men’s Rights” Movement

“The movement takes the form of a bill to compel rich wives to support invalid husbands. It is especially aimed at well-to-do women whose husbands are inmates of soldier’s homes.”