Maria Mies: Difference between revisions

| image = Maria Mies portrait photo.png

Mies was born in [[Hillesheim, Rhineland-Palatinate|Hillesheim]], Germany, on 6 February 1931 to Johann and Gertrud Mies.<ref name="Bauer">{{cite web |last=Schuster |first=Stefan |title=Maria Mies |url=https://www.fritz-bauer-forum.de/datenbank/maria-mies/ |access-date=17 May 2023 |website=fritz-bauer-forum.de |publisher=Buxus Stiftung |date=2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308090021/https://www.fritz-bauer-forum.de/datenbank/maria-mies/ |archive-date=8 March 2023 |location=Bochum, Germany |language=de |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Franken">{{cite web |last=Franken |first=Irene |title=Maria Mies |url=https://www.frauengeschichtsverein.de/start-und-news/frau-des-monats-2021/februar-2021/ |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=frauengeschichtsverein.de |publisher=Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein e.V. |date=2021 |location=Cologne, Germany |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516163104/https://www.frauengeschichtsverein.de/start-und-news/frau-des-monats-2021/februar-2021/ |archive-date=16 May 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> She came from a rural background, growing up in a family of farmers in [[Steffeln|Auel]], a village in the [[Vulkaneifel]] region<ref name="Bauer" /> of the Prussian Rhine Province (now in [[Rhineland-Palatinate]]).<ref name="Bauer"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lutz |first1=Herbert |last2=Lorenz |first2=Volker |title=Early Volcanological Research in the Vulkaneifel, Germany, the Classic Region of Maar–Diatreme Volcanoes: The Years 1774–1865 |journal=[[Bulletin of Volcanology]] |date=August 2013 |volume=75 |issue=8 |pages=743–758 |doi=10.1007/s00445-013-0743-0 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00445-013-0743-0 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] for the [[International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior]] |location=Berlin, Germany |issn=0258-8900 |oclc=5659170779|doi-access=free |bibcode=2013BVol...75..743L }}</ref>{{rp|747}} She was the seventh of twelve children,<ref name="Franken" /> who all worked in the fields while they were pupils at the local school with only one classroom. Her mother's temperament was optimistic, but her father was a patriarchal figure and caused fear for the family members with his anger. They were raised as Catholic.<ref name="Bauer" /> She was the first student from her village to complete secondary school,<ref name="Franken" /><ref name="Spiegel" /> which she attended in [[Gerolstein]], while boarding with a family friend. She then started at the Regino-Gymnasium in [[Prüm]], but the school was closed in September 1944 because of the [[World War II|war]].<ref name="Bauer" />

The programme was based on ideas she had first developed about women's studies and feminist scholarship in a 1977 paper "Towards a Methodology for Feminist Research" delivered at a conference in Frankfurt.<ref name="Schmitz" >{{cite journal |last1=Schmitz |first1=Betty |title=Reviewed Work: Theories of Women's Studies by Gloria Bowles, Renate Duelli Klein |journal=[[The Journal of Higher Education]] |date=January–February 1985 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=101–103 |doi=10.2307/1981725 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1981725 |access-date=20 May 2023 |publisher=[[Ohio State University Press]] |location=Columbus, Ohio |jstor=1981725 |issn=0022-1546 |oclc=8142350210}}</ref>{{rp|102}} To combat what she saw as a disconnect between theory and practical application in the academic setting, Mies aimed to rewrite existing teaching methods.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yeager |first1=Matthew G. |title=The Freedom of Information Act as a Methodological Tool: Suing the Government for Data |journal=Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice |date=July 2006 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=499–521 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_canadian-journal-of-criminology-and-criminal-justice_2006-07_48_4/page/511/mode/1up |access-date=20 May 2023 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Tornoto, Ontario |doi=10.3138/cjccj.48.4.499 |issn=1707-7753 |oclc=361889328}}</ref>{{rp|511}} She did not believe that feminist research could use existing research models and proposed instead seven steps to completely re-imagine research with usefulness and respect for the subject in mind.<ref name="Schmitz" />{{rp|102}} These steps included a rejection of both quantitative methods and extrapolation of studies on men to apply to women's experiences.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Westmarland |first1=Nicole |title=The Quantitative/Qualitative Debate and Feminist Research: A Subjective View of Objectivity |journal=Forum: Qualitative Social Research |date=February 2001 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.17169/fqs-2.1.974 |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0101135 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=Institut für Sozialwissenschaften Otto-von-Guericke-Universität |location=Berlin, Germany |issn=1438-5627 |oclc=7179505508}}</ref>{{rp|1–2}} She argued that research should be participatory,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chaudhuri |first1=Ritu Sen |editor1-last=Ghosh |editor1-first=Ghosh |title=Methodology of Research in Sociology |url=https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/socp3/ |date=2018 |publisher=[[INFLIBNET Centre]] |location=Gandhinagar, India |chapter=28 Feminist Methodology in Sociological Research |chapter-url=https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/socp3/chapter/feminist-methodology-in-sociological-research/ |id=Search term "participatory"}}</ref> meaning that the researcher and the subject should collaborate in the processes and goals of the study, which should aim at empowering women and dismantling patriarchal systems.<ref name="Sprague & Zimmerman">{{cite journal |last1=Sprague |first1=Joey |last2=Zimmerman |first2=Mary K. |title=Quality and Quantity: Reconstructing Feminist Methodology |journal=[[The American Sociologist]] |date=March 1989 |volume=20 |pages=71–86 |doi=10.1007/BF02697788 |publisher=[[American Sociological Association]] |location=Albany, New York |issn=0003-1232 |oclc=5656565707}}{{subscription neededrequired|via=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer Link]]}}</ref>{{rp|77}} The paper was later published as a chapter of the book ''Theories of Women's Studies'' (1983),<ref name="Schmitz" />{{rp|102}} and praised for its methodological innovations and theoretical advancements.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Griffith |first1=Alison I. |title=Reviewed Work: Theories of Women's Studies by Gloria Bowles, Renate Duelli Klein |journal=[[Canadian Journal of Sociology]] |date=Autumn 1986 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=311–314 |doi=10.2307/3341107 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3341107 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto, Ontario |jstor=3341107 |issn=0318-6431 |oclc=5546268950}}</ref>{{rp|313}}<ref name="Barnes">{{cite journal |last1=Barnes |first1=Nancy |title=Reviewed Works: Feminist Frontiers: Rethinking Sex, Gender, and Society by Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor; Theories of Women's Studies by Gloria Bowles, Renate Duelli-Klein |journal=[[Signs (journal)|Signs]] |date=Spring 1985 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=579–581 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174269 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago, Illinois |doi=10.1086/494163 |jstor=3174269 |issn=0097-9740 |oclc=5548306869}}</ref>{{rp|581}} Scholar Nancy Barnes, stated that Mies's article was so compelling that "it alone makes the book worth buying", but noted that the chapter did not resolve the question of whether women's studies should be a stand-alone field, or integrated into other fields.<ref name="Barnes" />{{rp|581}}

Mies's earliest works such as ''Indian Women in Patriarchy'' (1980) and ''The Lace Makers of Narsapur'' (1982), which evaluated her years in India, as well as later works like "Sexist and Racist Implications of New Reproductive Technology" (''Alternatives'', 1987) critiqued policies aimed at maintaining an uneven, stratified societal structure which encouraged domination and exploitation.<ref name="Léveillé" >{{cite journal |last1=Léveillé |first1=Danielle |title=Comptes Rendus: Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Women in the International Division of Labour. Zed Books Ltd, Third World Books, New Jersey, 1986, 251 pages. |journal=Recherches Féministes |date=1988 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=149–152 |doi=10.7202/057523ar |url=https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/rf/1988-v1-n2-rf1638/057523ar/ |access-date=20 May 2023 |trans-title=Proceedings: Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Women in the International Division of Labour. Zed Books Ltd, Third World Books, New Jersey, 1986, 251 pages. |publisher=[[Université Laval]] |location=Quebec City, Quebec |language=French |issn=0838-4479|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806021405/https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/rf/1988-v1-n2-rf1638/057523ar/ |archive-date=6 August 2022 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|149}} She sought to evaluate how women's labour became hidden and how the perception that women were reliant upon a husband's income emerged. She theorised that by eliminating pay for the work women performed, making them available at all times for labour, alienating them from society by keeping them in the home, giving them no job security, and eliminating their ability to contract or [[Trade union|unionise]], women lost [[Agency (sociology)|agency]]. She named the process which prevented women from being seen as producers or self-employed individuals and resulted in their exploitation, "housewifisation".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Teixeira |first1=Mylene N. |last2=Strazzeri |first2=Victor |title=Tradução do Verbete: Hausfrauisierung (H). Frigga Haug. Historisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch des Marxismus, HKWM Band 5. Berlin 2001, 1209–1215. |journal=Revista Estudos Feministas |date=2001 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1590/1806-9584-2018v26n256412 |url=http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ref/v26n2/1806-9584-ref-26-02-e56412.pdf |access-date=20 May 2023 |trans-title=Translation Entry: Housewifisation (H). Frigga Haug. Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism, HKWM Volume 5. Berlin 2001, 1209–1215. |publisher=Instituto de Estudos de Genero, [[Federal University of Santa Catarina|Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina]] |location=Florianópolis, Brazil |s2cid=150292239 |language=Portuguese |issn=0104-026X}}</ref>{{Rp|2}} The anthropologist Danielle Léveillé characterised Mies's works as both "masterful" and "astonishing" in that she was able to link variables from the [[Decolonization|anti-colonial]], [[Anti-racism|anti-racist]], ecology, feminist, and [[Nonviolence|non-violence]] movements to critique policies that established power relationships in society.<ref name="Léveillé" />{{rp|149}}

In the book ''Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Women in the International Division of Labour'' (1986), Mies evaluated the development of feminism, the sexual division of labour, and how violence shaped politics in Africa, Asia, and [[Latin America]].<ref name="Léveillé" /> In her analysis, the process of "housewifisation" was based on the Western ideals of [[capital accumulation]]. In other words, by destroying women's autonomy and making them possessions, men were able to acquire productive capital and amass wealth. She saw family violence, not as a remnant of ancient society, but as a part of the processes to modernise. In the work, she found that socialist development had created similar social structures exploiting women and argued for creation of a utopian feminist society.<ref name="Léveillé" />{{rp|150}} In Mies's vision, the basis for labour would be usefulness rather than accumulation. She theorised that if consumers in overdeveloped places fulfilled their needs to sustain life from producers in underdeveloped countries, it would give worldwide relief from exploitation.<ref name="Léveillé" />{{rp|150–151}} Léveillé noted that while such a plan might work, its drawback was that it devalued things like music, flowers, and art, which while not essential or necessary to support human life provided therapeutic benefits.<ref name="Léveillé" />{{rp|151}}

In ''The Subsistence Perspective'' (1999), Mies and Bennholdt-Thomsen argued that subsistence production, the production of [[goods]] and [[Goods and services|services]] for personal or community use, has been devalued, hidden, and [[marginalised]] by capitalist systems. Using the "iceberg model", they noted that the only visible labour in a traditional capitalistic society is that of the formal labour force. Hidden below the surface, the base of the iceberg represents unpaid domestic work, [[Care work|caring]], and [[Informal economy|informal labour]],<ref name="Kazuo">{{cite journal |last1=Kazuo |first1=Suzuki |script-title=ja:つの経済の分析枠組み |journal={{lang|ja|季刊経済理論|italic=no}} / Political Economic Quarterly |date=2019 |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=48–62 |doi=10.20667/peq.56.2_48 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/peq/56/2/56_48/_pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |trans-title=Analytical Framework for Two Economies |publisher=[[Musashi University]] for the Economic Theory Society |location=Tokyo, Japan |language=Japanese |issn=1882-5184 |oclc=9648139033}}</ref>{{rp|59}} which includes various forms of untaxed labour such as micro-entrepreneurs, child labourers and family members who work for other family members, and non-permanent workers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Packard |first1=Truman G. |last2=Koettl |first2=Johannes |last3=Montenegro |first3=Claudio |title=In from the Shadow: Integrating Europe's Informal Labor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KG0i36x16boC&pg=PA2 |date=2012 |publisher=World Bank Publications |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-0-8213-9550-9}}</ref>{{rp|2}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Perez-Lopez |first1=Jorge |last2=Schoepfle |first2=Gregory |title=The Informal Sector and Worker Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvS1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA2 |date=1993 |publisher=U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs |location=Washington, D.C. |oclc=1225668698}}</ref>{{rp|2}} They argued in favour of a society in which, instead of delegating labour-intensive work to certain segments of the population, communities shared all tasks.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dreysse |first1=Carmen |title=Geneviève Pruvost, Quotidien Politique. Féminisme, écologie, subsistance |journal=Les comptes rendus / Lectures |date=2022 |doi=10.4000/lectures.53857 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/lectures/53857 |access-date=21 May 2023 |trans-title=Geneviève Pruvost, Political Daily. Feminism, Ecology, Subsistence |publisher=[[École normale supérieure de Lyon]] |location=Lyon, France |s2cid=246312772 |language=French |issn=2116-5289 |oclc=9396193148}}</ref> The sharing model would give each person a basic income, some security, and a measure of power in decision-making.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kanji |first1=Nazneen |title=Mind the Gap: Mainstreaming Gender and Participation in Development |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep18134 |date=2003 |publisher=[[International Institute for Environment and Development]] |location=London |chapter=Preface |pages=vii–xii |chapter-url=http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep18134.3|isbn=978-1-84369-466-3}}</ref>{{rp|xi}} The book was called an "excellent feminist source on political economy" by the sociologist [[Ariel Salleh]] of [[Western Sydney University]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Salleh |first1=Ariel |author-link=Ariel Salleh |title=Reviewed Work: The Politics of Money: Towards Sustainability and Economic Democracy by Frances Hutchinson, Mary Mellor, Wendy Olsen |journal=[[Organization & Environment]] |date=September 2003 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=395–398 |doi=10.1177/10860266030163010 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26162484 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |jstor=26162484 |s2cid=220752627 |issn=1086-0266 |oclc=7851086801}}</ref>{{rp|396}}

Author Monika Mengel, stated that Mies is regarded as a pioneer of women's studies in Germany<ref name="Mengel" /> and Ireen Dubel, a policy expert on women's rights, stated that not only were her scholarly contributions pioneering, but they served as "inspiration for different generations of feminist scholars and activists.<ref name="Dubel" /> Her original concept of "housewifisation", introduced in ''Patriarchy and Accumulation'' but developed in her study of lacemakers in India,<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|115}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bagley |first1=Jennifer |title=Mies, Maria |url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/08/09/mies-maria-2/ |website=Critics & Theorists |publisher=[[Emory University]] |access-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505054450/https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/08/09/mies-maria-2/ |archive-date=5 May 2023 |location=Atlanta, Georgia |date=July 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> is widely used by academics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Casalini |first1=Brunella |title=Neoliberal Capitalism and the 'New Sexual Contract' |url=https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/35639 |website=ECPR General Conference |publisher=[[European Consortium for Political Research]] |access-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521214855/https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/35639 |archive-date=21 May 2023 |location=Hythe Quay, Colchester |date=September 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Piccardi" >{{cite journal |last1=Piccardi |first1=Eleonora Gea |title=The Challenges of a Kurdish Ecofeminist Perspective: Maria Mies, Abdullah Öcalan, and the Praxis of Jineolojî |journal=[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]] |date=January 2022 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=46–65 |doi=10.1080/10455752.2021.1905016 |url=https://www.kurdistanamericalatina.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Challenges-of-a-Kurdish-Ecofeminist-Perspective.pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |location=Abingdon, UK |s2cid=233695302 |issn=1045-5752 |oclc=9472984417}}</ref>{{rp|47}} Mies was one of the first feminist scholars to analyze the similarities between the position of women and colonised people in socio-economic hierarchies.<ref name="Meintel">{{cite journal |last1=Meintel |first1=Deirdre |author-link=Deirdre Meintel |title=Reviewed Work: Women: the Last Colony by Maria Mies, Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Claudia Von Werlhof |journal=Labour, Capital and Society |date=November 1989 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=388–391 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43157888 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Saint Mary's University (Halifax)|Saint Mary's University]] |location=Halifax, Nova Scotia |jstor=43157888 |issn=0706-1706 |oclc=5919328453}}</ref>{{rp|389}} Her book ''Ecofeminism'' has had international impact,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Toksoy |first1=N. Gamze |title='Dünyayı Yeniden Dokumak' Shiva ve Mies'den Ekofeminizm |journal=Fe Dergi |date=June 2021 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=101–106 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1803093 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=Kadın Sorunları Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi'nin |location=Ankara, Turkey |doi=10.46655/federgi.946958 |s2cid=238824195 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113230435/https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1803093 |archive-date=13 January 2022 |language=Turkish |trans-title='Re-Weaving the World' Ecofeminism by Shiva and Mies |issn=1309-128X |oclc=9530898453 |url-status=live|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|101}} and has been translated into several languages, including Spanish<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff" />{{rp|171}} and Turkish.<ref name="Piccardi" />{{rp|46}}

* {{cite book |ref=none |last=Mies |first=Maria |title=Indian Women and Patriarchy: Conflicts and Dilemmas of Students and Working Women |date=1980 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |location=New Delhi |oclc=7635521}} (English translation of her thesis).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bardhan |first1=Kalpana |title=Being A Woman in South Asia |journal=[[Journal of Women's History]] |date=Spring 1990 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=200–219 |doi=10.1353/jowh.2010.0193 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/363194/pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=Baltimore, Maryland |s2cid=145690300 |issn=1042-7961 |oclc=4896481013}}</ref>{{rp|207}}{{subscription neededrequired|via=[[Project MUSE]]}}