Durkheim, Marx, and the Division of Labor in Society
In The Division of Labor in Society, Emile Durkheim (1984) argues that the role of the division of labor is more than to make civilization possible through the provision of economic services. Rather, he argues its true function is to create a feeling of solidarity between people (Durkheim, 1984, p. 17). He states that his view of the division of labor differs from that of economists because they view the division's primary purpose as increased production. For Durkheim, however, greater productivity is merely a necessary consequence, a side-effect, of the division. Its true function is to enable us to live in the new conditions of existence created for us (Durkheim, 1984, p. 217).
On the other hand, Marx appears to agree with the economists that the true purpose of the division of labor is increased production. He states that the division of labor is based on the natural division of labor in the family and the separation of society into individual families opposed to one another (Marx, 1978, p. 159). The division is characterized by the unequal distribution of labor and its products. Further, the division implies the contradiction between the interest of the separate individual or family and the communal interest of all individuals (Marx, 1978, p. 159). The division establishes that the laborer's work becomes an alien power opposed to him and which enslaves him instead of being controlled by him because the distribution forces upon each laborer a particular, exclusive sphere of activity from which he cannot escape (Marx, 1978, p. 160).
Durkheim states that, historically, both genders participated equally in labor. However, society began to regulate each gender's participation in a manner that supported marriage and the woman's predominant role in the home. Consequently, the division of labor integrates society and ensures its unity (Durkheim, 1984, p. 23). He state...