Women As Sex Vendors

In Short

Published in 1918 by socialist writers R. B. Tobias and Mary E. Marcy, this provocative treatise analyzes women's social conservatism through a strictly materialist lens. Rather than attributing female behavior to innate morality, sentimental piety, or intellectual inferiority, the authors argue that women under capitalism function as owners of a unique commodity—their sex—which men must purchase or barter to secure. Because women possess this secondary safety net alongside wage labor, they share the cautious, individualistic mindset of petty shopkeepers. The text survives as a sharp, unvarnished artifact of early twentieth-century American Marxist-feminist thought.

The Story

The argument begins by confronting a common historical observation of its era: the noticeable absence of women from the frontlines of revolutionary movements, radical labor unions, and vanguard social struggles. Tobias and Marcy reject mainstream explanations based on biological inferiority or natural timidity. Instead, they assert that political radicalism belongs exclusively to the thoroughly exploited working class—those who possess nothing to sell but their physical labor power. Groups holding any form of property, privilege, or monopolized resource naturally lean toward conservation rather than upheaval. Small farmers cling to dreams of land ownership, and corner shopkeepers hate competitive wage earners more than monopoly trusts. Women, the authors argue, occupy an economic position directly analogous to these petty shopkeepers.

Every woman, regardless of her employment status or personal attractiveness, retains an ultimate fallback option that no working man possesses: the ability to exchange sex privileges for male financial support, whether through legal marriage, informal arrangements, or direct transaction. This unique biological monopoly distorts the dynamics of wage labor. Because women can supplement or substitute their earnings through sex, they accept lower wages in factories and offices, undercutting male labor while treating jobs as temporary stops on the way to matrimony.

To preserve this market value, society constructs elaborate cultural and legal illusions. Young girls learn to prioritize physical display, fine clothing, and chastity, using restraint to drive up the price of their commodity and force men into the long-term contract of marriage. Monogamy itself arose historically not from paternal affection, but alongside private property, ensuring wealthy men could pass land to verified heirs while displaying a supported wife as a badge of financial capability.

Over time, American legal structures adapted to shield this arrangement. The authors argue that modern jurisprudence overwhelmingly favors wives over husbands, enforcing financial support and penalizing male abandonment to safeguard the production of future labor. However, as modern industrialization pulls domestic tasks out of the household and into centralized factories, women enter the workforce in unprecedented numbers. This shift introduces higher economic independence, altering traditional bargaining positions. The text closes by predicting that the collapse of capitalist exploitation will destroy sex as a commercial transaction, allowing true individual affection to replace economic coercion.

How It Unfolds

The economic foundation of sex The writers establish that under capitalist conditions, men and women encounter one another primarily as buyers and sellers of a vital commodity. Possession of this monopolized resource gives women a favored biological position, rendering them inherently cautious and politically conservative.

The psychology of the petty shopkeeper Comparing women to small store owners, the text illustrates how the expectation of personal upward mobility through marriage breeds an individualistic mindset. Girls learn from childhood to care for their appearance and seek a lifelong provider rather than organize as wage workers.

The historical rise of monogamy Tracing the evolution of the family from primeval matriarchal clans to modern society, the authors detail how private property shattered female supremacy. Men established theoretical monogamy for wives to guarantee legitimate heirs for their accumulated wealth.

Legal privileges and the modern contract The text reviews early twentieth-century American law, arguing that courts systematically protect women at the expense of men. Marriage contracts bind husbands to lifelong support while offering wives complete legal immunity and social protection regardless of performance.

Industrial shift and future liberation The final section examines how mass factory production alters sex dynamics by offering women direct wages. The authors conclude that post-capitalist society will abolish the commercial exchange of intimacy entirely, leaving future generations to form bonds based solely on mutual desire.

The People

The Working Man Positioned as the ultimate buyer in the economic exchange, he possesses only his labor power to sell on the market. When unemployed, he faces absolute destitution, driving him toward trade unionism or revolutionary action, yet his biological drives compel him to spend his scarce wages attempting to purchase or support a female partner.

The Working Woman Occupying the dual role of prospective wage earner and owner of a biological commodity, she navigates society much like a small merchant. Her constant focus on enhancing her market value through dress and charm keeps her focused on individual matrimonial triumph rather than collective labor solidarity.

The Petty Shopkeeper Serving as the primary sociological analogue throughout the text, this figure clings desperately to a tiny enterprise, fearing competitors and envy-watching big capitalists. His reactionary ideology mirrors the conservative outlook of women who hope to marry into the supported leisure class.

In Its Own Voice

"When a woman loses a job, she has always the sale of her sex to fall back upon as a last resort."

Before introducing their core economic theory, the authors plainly state the fundamental biological difference separating unemployed female workers from their male counterparts.

"A monogamous wife is, in fact, an emblem of well-off-ness, and greatly to be desired."

In analyzing the social prestige of marriage, the text explains why male property owners willingly take on the permanent expense of supporting a household.

"The mind of the average woman today is that of the petty shopkeeper."

Summarizing the psychological impact of the sex market, the writers describe how personal commercial ambitions generate a bourgeois, anti-revolutionary worldview.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book explores how material conditions shape political consciousness. Tobias and Marcy argue that human behavior, moral codes, and political allegiances do not stem from abstract ideals or inherent gender traits, but from economic necessity. By framing female conservatism as a rational response to owning a valuable commodity within an extractive system, the text seeks to demystify marriage, romantic courtship, and social chivalry. It exposes how capitalist property relations transform intimate human connections into market transactions, arguing that true social equality between the sexes is entirely impossible until the broader capitalist mode of production is completely dismantled.

Why Read It Today

Readers drawn to the history of American radicalism, early Marxist theory, or the evolution of feminist thought will find this short volume a fascinating, unfiltered artifact. Free of modern academic jargon, the text delivers its provocative thesis with brisk, uncompromising clarity and a sharp, unapologetic edge.

The prose reflects its specific era, combining late nineteenth-century evolutionary sociology—drawing heavily on Frederick Engels and Lewis H. Morgan—with early twentieth-century socialist polemic. Modern readers may find its sweeping generalizations about gender psychology jarring, and its legal assertions regarding female privilege reflect the specific statutes and social attitudes of 1918 America. Furthermore, its rigid economic determinism leaves little room for nuance regarding personal agency or non-financial human motivations.

Despite these period limitations, the book remains a compelling curiosity. Its willingness to critique the conservative tendencies of its own contemporaries without resorting to sentimental moralizing offers a rare, clear-eyed look at how early American Marxists attempted to integrate sex, law, and commodity exchange into a single unified theory of social class.