Social Progress Can Be Measured By

This formulation is attributed to Marx, drawing on ideas he expressed about the emancipation of women as a measure of general social progress. Marx was influenced by the utopian socialist Charles Fourier, who wrote that the degree of female emancipation in a society is the natural measure of its general emancipation. Marx cited Fourier on this point in his early writings and correspondence, and the attributed quote is likely a condensation of that influence rather than a verbatim passage from Marx's own work.