Reproductive work and legal form: The necessary relationship between law and gender oppression in capitalism

Published

1 December 2023

Issue

Volume 1 – Number 12

How to cite

Marianna Haug

DOI

ABSTRACT

This text starts from the contributions of the Marxist critique of law and Social Reproduction Theory to understand why the domestic work done by the family is not waged, since no one receives a salary for cleaning their own house, cooking their own food, or taking care of their own children, which does not enter the logic of the employment contract and abstract work. The law separate what is considered family law from what is labour law as a strategy to guarantee the daily and generational reproduction of the workforce in exploitative conditions. Thus, ultimately, the legal form is directly related to the institution of gender inequalities in capitalism, in view of the historical process of making women responsible for domestic work, inside and outside the family structure.

KEYWORDS

Marxist critique of law, Legal form, Reproductive work, Gender Domestic work