What did Friedrich Engels conclude about gender and family inequality?

Friedrich Engels, a 19th-century German philosopher, social scientist, and collaborator of Karl Marx, explored the topic of gender and family inequality in his work "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" (1884). In this work, Engels posits that the traditional nuclear family structure and the resulting gender inequality are rooted in the rise of private property and the class society.

Engels concluded that in prehistoric societies, there was a form of primitive communism where property was held in common, and there was relatively little to no concept of individual ownership over resources. In these societies, he argued, relationships were more egalitarian, including those between genders. According to Engels, sexual relations were more permissive, and descent was often matrilineal, tracing lineage through the mother.

However, with the development of agriculture and the accumulation of surplus resources, the concept of private property emerged. As men wanted to ensure that their own offspring would inherit their wealth, they sought to control the sexuality of women, leading to the establishment of monogamous marriage and the patriarchal family. This shift, Engels argued, marked the world-historical defeat of the female sex as women became subjugated to men, and their role in production was devalued.

Engels theorized that the patriarchal family served the interests of capitalism by maintaining an unpaid domestic labor force (primarily women) responsible for rearing children and taking care of the household, thus supporting the male workforce without additional cost to the capitalists. This arrangement also perpetuated the inheritance of property through the male line, reinforcing the class structure.

In conclusion, Engels believed that gender and family inequality were not natural or immutable but were socially constructed and arose with the division of society into classes. He argued that the emancipation of women and the abolition of the traditional family structure would be possible only with the abolition of private property and the class society, leading to a socialist and eventually communist society where both genders would be equal and the means of production would be held in common.