MEXICO, March 8—One of the main ideological weapons used by the capitalist class to attack and divide the working class is sexism, particularly the oppression of women workers. Capitalism uses racism to divide the working class into supposedly “different” categories of Black, white, Latin and Asian, or amongst indigenous and non-indigenous. In a similar way, sexism divides the working class into groups of men and women, each with supposed inherent differences beyond what the biological sciences can prove. These so-called “differences” usually all end up saying men are superior in some way. Placing a particular emphasis on these differences between women and men workers intentionally hides the psychological, economic, social and even other biological similarities amongst workers.
Another way capitalists try to divide women and men workers politically is through their efforts to commercialize March 8, International Women’s Day, a day of communist struggle against oppression of women in the capitalist system. This day has an aspect of consciousness and organization that all women and men workers have to honor and rescue.  
Capitalism: Division, Oppression and Conquest
The capitalist profit system uses their political weapon of sexism to economically exploit women more intensely than men. According to data from one of the bosses’ main international mouthpieces, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the salary gap between women and men workers in 2014 was 18%, and the employment gap was 35%, both for comparable jobs. Women internationally also disproportionately shoulder the “double burden” of taking care of most of the domestic home labor, are the main caregivers and do most child upbringing, without ever getting paid.
The working class of Mexico is a case study in sexism and why the international working class must smash this entire capitalist system. The Mexican bosses’ government’s National Institute of Statistics calculated that the value of “routine work done in the home” alone was worth more than 20 percent of the entire national economy, or GDP, and 80 percent of this labor is done by women workers. This report acknowledged that domestic labor is more valuable than manufacturing (16.7 percent), commerce (15.5 percent), or education (4.1 percent) (INEGI, 4/7/16).
The main consequence from this sexist exploitation by the capitalists in Mexico can be seen at different levels. The most visible is sexual harassment, found on the streets or buses, work and school. Another way the capitalist culture normalizes both the violence of intensified economic exploitation and physical violence against women is through their media and promotion of pornography, a multibillion dollar world industry worth more than three professional sports leagues in the U.S. (New York Times, 5/20/01). More than 30 percent of women in Mexico have suffered sexual violence at least once, with the actual numbers likely higher because women are terrorized into not reporting attacks.
Less visible but interrelated forms of violence against women workers in Mexico, and the most brutal, are the “femicides.” A pandemic average of six women workers are murdered there each day, with 24 percent of them ever investigated, and 1.6 percent of murderers sentenced (Al Jazeera America, 1/4/15). These femicides are the main cause of death for working class women between the ages of 15-30 (INEGI 2016).  
Bosses Mislead With Liberalism
Sexism is an integral and essential part of the capitalists system. It generates tremendous profits worldwide, and is an ideological political weapon to weaken and divert working class struggle by pitting women and men workers against each other. Even when the capitalists use liberal policies to minimize inequality amongst men and women, they can’t eliminate it, because it goes hand in hand with capitalism. In contrast to Mexico, the capitalists of Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and others gloat about their advances for women.
The liberal capitalist press all over the world has been gushing particularly about Iceland’s new laws mandating equal pay for women, and is held up as proof that capitalism can benefit both workers and bosses. This is false. Capitalism “gave” women workers nothing - with the support of many men workers, women waged strikes and fought for decades for higher pay and recognition of domestic labor in these countries. Even then, women and men workers are still not equal.
Closing gender pay gaps between women and men does not lead to women workers’ power. In between their vocal praise, the bosses’ press admits that “shifts in the political climate” in Iceland can “easily demolish” these gains (Guardian, 10/28/14). In other words, what the capitalists allow one day, they can take away the next.
Furthermore, at the same time that Iceland and other Nordic countries are now “mandating” equal pay, these laws often do not apply to immigrant women escaping imperialist conflict. In Iceland, racist immigration laws went so far as to mandate DNA testing for immigrants to prove “Icelandic” heritage (Iceland Review, 12/21/04).
Working Class Needs Red Women Leadership
Sexism can only be eliminated through a communist revolution, which will not only eliminate exploitation, but also abolish the special oppression of women and the sexist behavior.    
Capitalists promote liberal ideas like feminism to struggle for women’s “rights”, and more “equality” amongst the sexes. These feminist movements have dragged many strong women fighters into liberal and right-wing struggles and even turned them against men workers. The workers need to be united and organized into a revolutionary party for communism so we can fight against the root cause of sexism; capitalism.
Humanity had its biggest advances in its struggle against sexism, when the workers took political power and applied antisexist politics in the Soviet Union and China.  In the period of 1926 to 1961, in the Soviet Union, women’s salary increased 10 times, while the number of women engineers went from 600 to 379,000 from 1917 to 1961. There were similar advances in health and political representation. The law established gender equality - and workers defended these gains with their workers’ dictatorship. PLP has analyzed these victories elsewhere - as well as their weaknesses. Even with these advances the old communist movement did not eliminate sexism. It did however show the way forward to change the system dominated by a capitalist minority, and advance toward a society run by the working majority,  communism.