Social reproduction feminisms

This chapter outlines the trajectory of social reproduction feminisms, particularly as it unfolded in Europe and North America, by focusing upon the main theoretical contributions. By critically engaging with Marx’s critique of political economy, feminists engaged in debates over social reproduction extended his analysis to grapple with the ways in which the reproduction of labour power grounds processes of accumulation in relations of social oppression. The chapter outlines some of the main contributions to the debate on the nature and role of social reproduction within capitalism and in relation to women’s oppression. From the early feminist communists’ articulation of the place of women’s unpaid or unrecognised reproductive labour within the household, to the domestic labour debate, and more recent re-appraisals and development of the Wages for Housework campaign and Social Reproduction Theory, we trace the unfinished project of foregrounding the centrality of life-making activities for capitalism. This unfinished project has, as this chapter aims to show, a pointed political message: the fight against capitalist exploitation must be, at one and the same time, a fight against social oppression.