On this International Working Women’s Day, the Young Communist League reaffirms its commitment to the struggle for women’s emancipation. We stand shoulder to shoulder with women around the world in the fight for equality of the sexes, which recognises that women’s liberation cannot be achieved without the overthrow of capitalism, imperialism and war. As young communists, we understand that true women’s emancipation can only be achieved under socialism.
In 2025, women still face the double burden of work and caregiving responsibilities. Black women face the further burden of race-based exploitation and oppression. TUC analysis has found that women are paid on average 48 days less per year than men. This exploitation is inherent to capitalism because it is the capitalist class’s way of extracting as much profits from the labour of the working class. All the while women workers rear and maintain generations of workers for the capitalist class to exploit.
Women, particularly young and Black women, are disproportionately employed in low-paid, precarious work, on zero-hour contracts and with poor terms and conditions in sectors such as social care and hospitality. These issues are exacerbated by the erosion of worker and trade union rights that would provide working women the ability to collectively challenge the status quo. This is not accidental but systemic to capitalism, which puts profits over the workers.
Another tool of capitalism is the commodification of women’s bodies. This year, we have seen motions submitted at TUC Women’s Conference calling for the full decriminalisation of prostitution, supporting the legalisation of commercial sexual exploitation of women for the profit of pimps. Capitalism reduces women’s bodies down to mere commodities to be bought and sold. The League opposes such commodification of women’s bodies and joins our sisters in the labour and progressive movement fighting against all forms of sexual exploitation, including prostitution and trafficking, which is perpetuated by capitalism.
This sexual exploitation is intrinsically linked to the epidemic of violence against women and girls in Britain, which are not isolated phenomena but direct consequences of capitalism. Femicide, sexual abuse and domestic violence cannot be viewed through the lens of individual acts but taken together as widespread consequences of sexism used to subjugate working women under capitalism.
The League recognises that the eradication of violence against women and girls cannot be achieved through the reform of capitalism, which innately requires this violence to function, but through the overthrow of capitalism and the ushering in of socialism. This necessarily abolishes the conditions in which violence against women and girls is preserved. Socialism would ensure that women are more economically independent, have better housing and well-funded services, plus more education opportunities and accessible childcare provision among many other benefits. Consequently, socialism provides the conditions that make it easier for women to flee exploitation and violence.
We can see how socialism facilitates the eradication of violence against women and girls by pointing towards examples of actually existing socialism. In China and Cuba, it is vastly recognised that to overcome sexism, prevention is better than a cure. Their education systems are well-funded to educate, both boys and girls in infant school upwards, the core socialist values on the emancipation of women and the women’s struggle. There are still challenges in combating sexism due to its prevalence globally, but whole-process people’s democracy, legal reforms and meaningful consultations with the Federation of Cuban Women and the All-China Women’s Federation mean that women’s issues are easily raised with and addressed by government bodies. Communists in Britain have much to learn from our comrades abroad in tackling women’s issues.
However, the fight for women’s emancipation would not be complete without the fight against imperialism, which brutally exploits and oppresses women in the Global South through war, occupation and other imperialist aggressions. Women and children are disproportionately affected by imperialists imposing neoliberal policies, plundering natural resources and destabilising nations, leading to poverty and violence against women and girls. The ongoing genocide in Gaza is the starkest example of this as women and children make up 70% of the victims of the genocidal Israeli regime, which Britain economically and politically supports. The fight of Palestinian women is a reminder that the fight for women’s liberation is inseparable from the fight against imperialism. The League stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and calls on the British government to recognise the independent State of Palestine.
History shows us that working women are not passive victims of the patriarchy but active proponents of change. From the women’s suffrage movement in Britain to the revolutionary fighters in Cuba and China, women have and continue to fight in the struggle for peace, jobs and socialism.
Let us draw inspiration from our sisters around the world and commit to building the class struggle in Britain for true women’s emancipation. We call on young women to join our ranks to fight for socialism in our lifetime and create a world where women are free from exploitation, oppression and violence.
If not you, who?
If not now, when?
Join today, to conquer your future!
YCL Women’s Commission
Young Communist League
8 March 2025
London, Britain
