Domestic labor is unwaged exploitation essential to reproducing capital

Evidence

One may suggest that the “authenticity” of the domestic is related to the long-standing position of gendered, domestic labor as supposedly “beyond” or outside the space of capitalist exploitation. A range of current feminist writers associated with “social reproduction theory” note that until the 1970s—with the work of theorists such as Silvia Federici, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, and Leopolda Fortunati, among others—the home was regularly overlooked. It was perceived, in the words of Federici, as “a large area of exploitation until then unrecognized by all revolutionary theorists, Marxist and anarchist alike.” The capitalist class not only exploits waged workers but extracts surplus value from “millions of unwaged house-workers as well as many other unpaid and un-free labourers.” The space of the home, as the primary location of the “private” activities of family life, rest, entertainment, sex, and biological reproduction, is also a space essential for the reproduction of capital. Yet the framing of this space as “private” positions these gendered forms of work as beyond the exploitation of capital, despite their necessity. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 123

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces social reproduction theory and Federici’s unwaged housework argument — core to the book’s labor theory of value framework.
• XREF: The unwaged domestic labor concept directly maps onto influencer labor: performed as ‘lifestyle,’ not work, yet realizing surplus for platforms and brands. — connects to: All wage labor is exploited regardless of wage level — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 98; Capitalist profit also depends on unpaid domestic labor — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 106; Capital depends on unpaid female reproductive labour outside the factory — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 119 (+3 more)