Maria Mies: Difference between revisions

The late 1960s and early 1970s was a period of global protest and Mies became involved in activism. She participated in protests against the [[Vietnam War]] and [[Anti-nuclear movement|nuclear armaments]] in the annual [[Peace movement|pacifist]] {{ill|Easter March|de|Ostermarsch}}.<ref name="Bauer" /> She joined {{lang|de|Frauenforum Köln|italics=no}} (Women's Forum Cologne), a local women's group tied to the [[Women's liberation movement in Europe|women's liberation movement]], which protested [[patriarchy|patriarchal structures]] and the devaluation of women.<ref name="Franken" /> She participated in the {{ill|Politisches Nachtgebet|de|lt=Politische Nachtgebete}} (political night-prayers), organizedorganised by [[Dorothee Sölle]], which were aimed at questioning the status of women in the church. As she became more involved in protest and women's lack of equality, Mies became critical of religion and left the Catholic church. She taught at the newly founded [[Cologne University of Applied Sciences]],<ref name="Bauer" /> before accepting a post in 1974 to teach at the [[University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research]]. For three years, she presented seminars on the [[First-wave feminism|historic international women's movement]], hoping she could convince the university to establish a women's study chair. In 1975, she attended the [[World Conference on Women, 1975|World Conference on Women]] in [[Mexico City]] and realised how little was known about women's history.<ref name="Franken" /> In 1976, she married Sarkar, with the intent of having a [[Matrilocal residence|visiting marriage]] allowing each to continue their careers in their respective countries.<ref name="Bauer" /> That year, she joined with other activists, mainly students of her classes, to found the [[women's shelter]] (''Frauenhaus'') in Cologne, one of the first of its kind in Germany.<ref name="Spiegel" /><ref name="Mengel">{{cite news |last=Mengel |first=Monika |title=Erlebte Geschichten mit Maria Mies |url=https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/erlebtegeschichten/miesmaria102.html |access-date=19 May 2023 |work=[[Westdeutscher Rundfunk|WDR]] |date=31 December 2006 |language=de |trans-title=Stories Experienced with Maria Mies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519141132/https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/erlebtegeschichten/miesmaria102.html |archive-date=19 May 2023 |location=Cologne, Germany |url-status=live}}</ref> Mies lectured at the shelter, teaching women practical and political ways to combat [[Violence against women|violence]]. She returned to the University of Applied Sciences in 1977,<ref name="Franken" /> but decided to conduct a research project in India the following year.<ref name="Bauer" />

In 1981, Mies decided to return to Cologne and the University of Applied Sciences and Sarkar, her husband, joined her there permanently in 1982. She became involved in the [[Ecofeminism|ecofeminist movement]], as well as in activism against [[genetic engineering]] and [[reproductive technology]], which she saw as an expropriation of a woman's right to give birth and a commercialization of human production. She was one of the founders of the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering.<ref name="Bauer" /> Within this organization and in her works, she argued that women from the Global North were urged to use invasive technologies such as [[In vitro fertilisation|assisted fertilisation]] and [[surrogacy]] to increase their child-bearing, while women in the [[Global South]] were pressed to limit births to control population growth.<ref name="Bauer" /><ref name="Sandilands" >{{cite journal |last1=Sandilands |first1=Catriona |title=Reviewed Work: Ecofeminism by Maria Mies, Vandana Shiva |journal=[[Economic Geography (journal)|Economic Geography]] |date=January 1996 |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=96–99 |doi=10.2307/144510 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/144510 |access-date=20 May 2023 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |location=New York, New York |jstor=144510 |issn=0013-0095 |oclc=5548541985}}</ref>{{rp|97}} Mies also pointed out that to exercise [[Bodily integrity|decisions about their bodies]], women are limited by systems designed, controlled, and administered by health providers and government officials.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kato |first1=Yutaka |title=Reproductive Technology: What Is the Impact of Fertility Treatment and Regenerative Medicine on Society? by Azumi Tsuge (review) |journal=East Asian Science, Technology and Society |date=2015 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=91–94 |doi=10.1215/18752160-2835763 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/577039/pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |location=Durham, North Carolina |s2cid=75669458 |issn=1875-2160 |oclc=5795963720}}</ref>{{rp|93}} She became more active in pacifist activities, participating in a resistance camp [[NATO Double-Track Decision#Protests|protesting]] against a [[NATO]] plan to station nuclear warheads in Germany in 1983. Her pacifism was reinforced by her opposition to the idea put forth by [[Alice Schwarzer]] that women could gain emancipation if they had the same violent means which were available to men. Opposed to war, Mies could not reconcile that simple equality with men would overcome hierarchical systems that devalued women.<ref name="Bauer" /> Having retired from teaching in 1993, she continued to be active in women's and other social movements.<ref name="Spiegel" /> She was a founding member of [[Attac]], formed in 1999, and organizedorganised feministAttac, in 2001 at the association's congress, held that year in Berlin.<ref name="Spiegel" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Wir haben eine aufrichtige Mitstreiterin verloren |url=https://www.attac.de/neuigkeiten/detailansicht/news/mariamies |website=Attac Deutschland |publisher=Attac Trägerverein e.V. |access-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523104520/https://www.attac.de/neuigkeiten/detailansicht/news/mariamies |archive-date=23 May 2023 |location=Frankfurt am Main, Germany |language=German |trans-title=We've Lost a Genuine Comrade-in-Arms |date=22 May 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Political scientist {{ill|Elisabeth Prügl|wikidata|Q58195777}} pointed to Mies's connection of the threads in society that united women, colonizedcolonised people, and nature as being free for exploitation. The unpaid labour of the former was easily equated to the free availability of air and water.<ref name=Prügl>{{cite journal |last1=Prügl |first1=Elisabeth |title=Home-Based Workers: A Comparative Exploration of Mies's Theory of Housewifization |journal=[[Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies]] |date=January 1996 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=114–135 |doi=10.2307/3346904 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346904 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |jstor=3346904 |issn=0160-9009 |oclc=5546263196}}</ref>{{rp|115}} Prügl tested Mies's theory that housewives were superexploited and confirmed that they were. Using data from the [[International Labour Organization]], she found that housewives universally earned less than the legal minimum wage.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|116}} In looking at homemakers in Brazil, Britain, Pakistan, Thailand, and Turkey, Prügl confirmed that housewives were typically viewed as non-workers.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|129}} However, she found that there was not a universal acceptance by women, or their various societies, of the cultural and political meaning of housewifery and its value.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|129–130}} She concluded that because of the "multiple contextual meanings" of the term housewife, exploitation more likely resulted from the political, rather than economic, spread of [[capitalism]].<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|130}} Prügl questioned whether housewifisation as an underpinning of capitalism failed to evaluate whether exploitation was instead related to global patriarchy.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|116}}

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 theorizedtheorised 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}}