Marxist feminists such as Gotby, Fraser, Ferguson, and Bhattacharya, believe that today women are still charged with a disproportionate amount of — often unwaged and unrecognized — forms of social reproductive labor that are necessary for capitalism’s function. Although gendered norms are not as obvious as they may have been in the 1950s, women are still expected to nurture, care, comfort, and perform other forms of emotional labor in intimate and familial relationships. This helps ensure that workers can endure the demands of wage labor under capitalism and helps to raise children into the next generation of the labor force.
Closing thoughts
Social reproduction theory plays into an expanded conception of capitalism that is not merely an economic system, but an all-encompassing institutionalized social order oriented around capital accumulation. It also represents a continuation of Marxian theory and method, as scholars — most notably Marxist feminists — further develop his ideas and allusions in Das Kapital. Their contributions help us understand the underlying factors that produce gendered social hierarchies that persist within society today. Social reproduction also offers insights into the motivations behind public policy choices in the realms of healthcare, education, and more.
Beyond this, the work of theorists like Nancy Fraser and others in further exploring the dynamics of capitalism in their totality helps to elucidate the myriad contradictions innate to this system. Namely, in the tensions that exist between social reproduction and production, we witness its cannibalizing nature. In other words, capitalism increasingly prioritizes short-term profit gains to the detriment of its long-term sustainability. This has produced a crisis of social reproduction, as necessary public goods are increasingly privatized and made less accessible to the labor force that needs them to reproduce itself.
Looking ahead, it remains unclear what the shortsighted demands of capital to expand to new markets will mean for the realm of social reproduction. For example, if entire generations are unable to afford healthcare or education without being burdened with enormous levels of debt, this could have destructive implications for maintaining a viable labor force. Still, despite its many paradoxes, capitalism often finds ways to resist collapse. Even so, social reproduction theory offers us crucial ways of thinking about these exploitative conditions so that we might be able to dismantle them in service of building a more inclusive and just future.
Further reading on Perlego
Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto (2019) by Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser
Family Welfare and the State: Between Progressivism and the New Deal (2021) by Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Rafaella Capanna
Patriarchy of the Wage: Notes on Marx, Gender, and Feminism(2021) by Silvia Federici
The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (2012) by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone (2021) by Sarah Jaffe
Nancy Fraser, Social Justice and Education (2020) Edited by Carol Vincent