Unpaid Reproductive Labour: A Marxist Analysis

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the effects of unpaid reproductive labour on labour productivity and production. We make use of a Marxist approach, recognising in its method and categories the necessary and adequate tools in order to disclose reality. Capitalism is regarded as patriarchal, and patriarchy as a set of social relations that dominate women and women’s labour-power for the benefit of men and capital. We argue that unpaid reproductive labour involves both class and gender struggles, which affect in a contradictory manner the capitalist accumulation process. Such assertion is reached by using an analytical instrument (based on linear algebra) developed in order to observe the impact that an insufficient fulfilment of the workers’ necessities has on labour productivity and production.

Citation

Escobar Meléndez, C.B. (2013), "Unpaid Reproductive Labour: A Marxist Analysis", Zarembka, P. (Ed.) Contradictions: Finance, Greed, and Labor Unequally Paid (Research in Political Economy, Vol. 28), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0161-7230(2013)0000028006