The Dividing Power of the Wage: Housework as Social Subversion

Authors

  • Christina Rousseau PhD Candidate, Division of Humanities, York University Sessional Instructor, Canadian Studies, Trent University Professional Affiliations: Society for Socialist Studies Centre for Feminist Research Women's and Gender Studies et Recheres Féministes

Keywords:

Housework, wages, social reproduction, second wave, social movements, feminism

Abstract

In this article, I revisit the Wages for Housework (WfH) perspective and movement in order to recover Marxist-feminist analyses of social reproduction. Social reproduction remains an important site of contestation, especially as women continue to bear the brunt of an increasingly neo-liberalized economy. WfH’s nuanced view of wages and housework, I argue, should be reconsidered as a point of departure in responding to new forms of oppression in a re-organized economy.

Résumé
Dans cet article, je revisite la perspective et le mouvement « salaire au travail ménager » afin de retrouver les analyses marxistes féministes de la reproduction sociale. La reproduction sociale demeure un champ important de contestation, d’autant que les femmes continuent à faire les frais d’une économie de plus en plus néo-libérale. La vision nuancée du mouvement « salaire au travail ménager » au sujet des salaires et des tâches ménagères, devrait à mon avis être reconsidérée comme point de départ pour répondre aux nouvelles formes d’oppression dans une économie réorganisée.

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Author Biography

Christina Rousseau, PhD Candidate, Division of Humanities, York University Sessional Instructor, Canadian Studies, Trent University Professional Affiliations: Society for Socialist Studies Centre for Feminist Research Women's and Gender Studies et Recheres Féministes

Christina Rousseau recently completed her Ph.D. in Humanities at York University. She is currently a sessional instructor in both Canadian Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies at Trent University, and is also an independent researcher and writer. Her main teaching, research, and writing interests focus on issues related to social reproduction; gender, the body, and sexuality; gender and work; and social movement organizing.

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Published

2016-10-28