Feminisms with and beyond Marx: Readings about Reproductive labor in Marxian Works

Abstract

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were debates between Marxism and feminism through the readings of feminist socialist, radical, and Marxist intellectuals, intending to reflect on “the question of women” in the capitalist system. These writers thought about “work” in Marx's productions and constructed, first, the category of “domestic work” and, later, that of “reproductive work”. Then, in the first decades of the 21st century, new feminist readings of Marxist writings emerged through the category of “reproductive labor”, which were nourished by the debates of previous decades.

In recent years, in a background of visualization of gender violence and the struggles of women's and feminist movements worldwide, the struggles for the recognition of domestic and care tasks as work became central. It is therefore fruitful to explore the reflections of Marxist feminist authors on “labor” in Marx.

This article explores the reflections of feminist intellectuals who take up Marxist theory to think about women's work in the 21st century. To achieve this, I take up the productions of those writers who return to Marxian works and expose both the contributions and criticisms of the German thinker's theory, after briefly reviewing the legacy of the debates that took place in the 1970s and 1980s, as they nourish the analysis of current Marxist feminisms.