Labor Day traditionally celebrates the contributions and achievements of the labor movement and workers from all sectors of the economy. It can also be an opportunity to acknowledge and honor the significance of reproductive labor. Reproductive labor refers to the paid and unpaid work that sustains both the productivity of the current workforce and the conditions necessary to reproduce future workers, such as caregiving, housework, and child-rearing.
Reproductive labor is often disproportionately performed by marginalized groups - especially women and people of color. This can lead to disparities in paid employment, wages, and opportunities. Discussing these disparities on Labor Day can draw attention to broader issues of gender-based and racial inequity.
Advocating for the recognition and support of reproductive labor can foster a more comprehensive understanding of the inequities and challenges faced by all workers. This Labor Day, let’s incorporate the concept of reproductive labor into our celebrations and promote a more inclusive picture of all forms of labor that contribute to the functioning of our interconnected society.
What is reproductive labor?
Reproductive labor is a concept used by feminists to bring attention to the way that the workforce is maintained by the unpaid domestic labor predominantly done by women to support the productivity of current workers and raise future workers.
More recently, feminists have explored the nuances of this, and developed related social theories about the mental, manual, and emotional care work - paid and unpaid - required to both maintain our current everyday life and reproduce, raise, and educate the next generations.
Reproductive labor gives us a framework with which to consider all the care work which keeps daily domestic life and subsequently economic production going.
When it comes to household labor, including, cooking, and caretaking for children, the elderly, and the sick, some aspects of this work are more visible than others.
Reproductive labor includes both relational (directly interacting with people) and non-relational (done behind the scenes) forms of care work.
Paid reproductive labor
Paid forms of reproductive labor include various jobs that support the continuance of daily life and reproduce the next generation.
This includes care and service oriented roles in physical and mental health, housekeeping and cleaning services, education, food preparation and service, childcare, and various forms of personal care such as massage therapists, hair stylists, and nail technicians.
The majority of these fields have historically employed high concentrations of women and/or are socially perceived as women’s work.
Low wages and difficult working conditions are an issue in a vast number of care and service-oriented jobs.
Paid forms of reproductive labor are heavily gendered and also racialized and classed.
How is reproductive labor racialized?
Theorists such as Evelyn Nakano Glenn and Dorothy Roberts contend that historically, women of color have been disproportionately relegated to more non-relational labor, (invisible, lower-paying, and perceived as less skilled i.e cleaning, food service) than white women.
Historically, higher concentrations of white women have been employed in relational forms of paid reproductive labor that are more public-facing and professionalized (i.e. fields such as nursing and education), which also earn higher wages.
Transfers of labor
As more and more white women from the upper classes joined the workforce, domestic needs of the home did not change. To continue the needed reproductive labor of the household, many families have employed other women to fill the household roles. -This catalyzed a global-scale transfer of reproductive labor to the lower-class women workers caring for their children and households - especially women of color and immigrants.
…and more transfers of labor
As migrant women leave their own children behind to pursue paid domestic work abroad, their reproductive labor in their previous household also often transfers to another woman. Arlie Hochschild writes (2004), “two women working for pay is not a bad idea. But two working mothers giving their all to work is a good idea gone haywire.” Even as women increasingly find paid employment globally, reproductive labor remains heavily dependent on women.
This Labor Day, spend time reflecting on the way that multiple types of labor contribute to the well-being of our society. Discussing the patterns we've outlined in this post for both paid and unpaid forms of reproductive labor can draw attention to long-term gender-based and racial inequities. We can step up to change these patterns by rethinking and reshaping the ways we define and value all forms of labor - especially those with less visibility and support.
SOURCES
Duffy, Mignon. 2005. “Reproducing labor inequalities: challenges for feminists conceptualizing care at the intersections of gender, race, and class.” Gender & Society 19(1): 66-82.
Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. 2000. "Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor." Gender & Society 14 (4): 560-580.
Allison Daminger “The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor.” American Sociological Review, 2019.
Nititham, D.S. (2016). Making Home in Diasporic Communities: Transnational belonging amongst Filipina migrants (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315593333
Why Are We Here? - Code Switch Podcast, 2021.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/magazine/waged-housework.html
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. 1992. "From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 18(1):1-43.
Sassen, Saskia. 2004. “Global Cities and Survival Circuits.” Pp. 254-275 in Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, edited by Ehrenreich, Barbara and Hochschild, Arlie. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Roberts, Dorothy. 1997. Spiritual and menial housework. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 9:51.
Parreñas, R S. (2001) Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hochschild, A. (2000) 'The nanny chain', American Prospect, January 3. New York Times (2001) September 1: A8.
Hochschild, A. R. (2004). Love and gold. In A. R. Hochschild, & B. Ehrenreich (Eds.), Global women: Nannies, maids, and sex workers in the new economy. New York: Owl Books.
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