Behind Closed Doors: Women's Reproductive Work & How it Sustains the World
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- Figure 1- Authors own photo (2025).
Behind Closed Doors: Women's Reproductive Labour & How it Sustains the World.
->> Prior to reading this blog, I recommend listening to this ted talk to gain a background understanding on reproductive labour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zcC9M4QKlU. (Sallah. A. 2022)
Think of the Word “Work”
What comes to mind?
Think of the word “work”. What comes to mind? Is it: paid labour, working the typical 9-5, factory production, agricultural work, building work, hospitality, finance, maintenance. Now, it could be a fair comment to assume that the first thing that came to mind was not the idea of ‘reproductive labour’, such as maintaining a home & raising children. However, for most women across the globe, this is a job they have placed upon them by society, and is done to maintain capitalism (Federici. S, 2004).
When I started writing this blog, I knew I wanted to focus on women’s reproductive work because once you open your eyes to it, you start to see it everywhere. What I wanted to emphasise, however, is how this work so often takes place behind closed doors. This hiddenness is symbolic of the ways society confines and controls women, turning their bodies into instruments of production, also referred to as the mechanised proletarian body, that fuels capitalism (Federici. S, 2004).
Figure 2. The inequality of the Capitalist system (Raye. J. 2021)
Capitalism imposes certain things upon women, specifically the mechanisation of their bodies, in the pursuit of profit. Women are essentially used as an instrument to reproduce the workforce, whilst maintaining the current one. This work is done behind closed doors, so to speak. Much of the work that a woman does, goes unnoticed and unseen, yet is the foundation blocks of a capitalist society, and arguably, without women, would capitalism prosper?
Hegemonic masculinity is what maintains the subordination of women, and the dominance of men. As researched by Connell, and as illustrated through examples by Gee, Hull & Lankshear (1996), and Wajcman (1999), it’s highlighted that within whichever form of hegemonic masculinity capitalism enforces at the time, for example the fast capitalism executive (Gee, Hull & Lankshear, 1996) or the traditional bourgeois manager (Wajcman, 1999), one thing is clear, that hegemonic masculinity in all its forms, relies on the invisibility of women’s work (Connell. R.W, 2005).
Women's work as globally understood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJLawgDbn_E
(Regina F. Lark. 2023)
Having examined my life and the gender roles around me, I soon realised that reproductive labour is present, highlighting that capitalism is deeply embedded within everyday social and cultural life, not a distant social system.
In my home life, I witness my mother maintaining the house with cooking, cleaning and caring (see Figure 1), and my father doing the manual side of sustaining a household, such as going out to work and/or fixing things around the house (see Figure 3), that stereotypically, a woman would not do. However, what I found interesting is the complete shift in gender work expectations, just a few metres apart.
Figure 1- Mother cooking a family dinner in the kitchen. Authors own photo (2025).
A man’s labour is depicted in a much different way to that of women’s labour. Any labour a man performs, as Locke describes as “the labour of his body, and the work of his hands” (Anderson, 2000, p. 3), is considered his own property. However, a woman’s labour, during Locke’s time, was not recognised as her own as it was legally and socially owned by her husband.
Figure 3: Father reconstructing the roof outdoors (Authors own photo, 2025).
This division, albeit not in the same way as it once was historically, is still reflected in the images of my parent's roles. My dad’s manual work, fixing things around the house, is seen, through a capitalist lens, as productive and skilled. Whereas my mum’s work, often happens quietly, such as her cooking, cleaning and caring. Her work maintains our household, yet it remains invisible and largely unacknowledged. This everyday example of a generic household setup, brings theory to life, showing how the gendered value of labour continues to shape the way we see work.
It is also worth noting that capitalism affects many people, such as workers, male or female. The below song puts this strong message into audio form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k&list=RDaTafZRecy2k&start_radio=1.
Bibliography:
Raye. J. (2021). Hellraisers Journal: Capitalist Owns the Machinery of Production and Won’t Let You Forget It. Available at: https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-capitalist-owns-the-machinery-of-production-and-wont-let-you-forget-it-cartoon-by-art-young/.
Lark. R. F. (2023). Emotional labor and the myth of "women's work". Tedx Talks. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJLawgDbn_E.
Sallah. A. (2022). Who Cares? The Gendered Burden of Unpaid Care Work. TedX Talks. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zcC9M4QKlU.
Connell, R.W. (2005). Globalisation, imperialism and masculinities, in Kimmel, M.S., Hearn, J. and Connell, R.W. (eds.) Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 71–89. Available at:
Federici. S (2004). Caliban and the Witch. Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. Penguin Books.
Anderson. B (2000). Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour. Zed Books, London and New York. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4Gy38pqdoigC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=Bridget+Anderson+(2000)+%E2%80%93+%E2%80%9CDoing+the+Dirty+Work%3F+The+Global+Politics+of+Domestic+Labour.%E2%80%9D&ots=be9yXoOGda&sig=GPnUg0aXoySeFv2L8cAN4p09GUw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false.
sophcowgurl13 (2008). Dropkick Murphys - Worker's Song (with lyrics). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k&list=RDaTafZRecy2k&start_radio=1
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