Abstract

Work is considered to be a separate entity from one’s domestic or social life, as something people are paid to do, usually for a set number of hours per week or month. The separation of men’s and women’s work between the labour market and the home has evolved historically. Feminists’ interest in work has concerned with what they refer to as the division of labour; the allocation of work on the basis of sex; women’s and men’s work both at home and in the paid workforce. The present article significantly highlights women’s full-day labour as an undervalued and unseen work in the household and society and the changing relationship between production and reproduction. Based on the theoretical backdrop of the gender division of labour, this article focuses on the assessment and understanding of the invisible work of women in industrial society. In advanced industrial societies, work is traditionally associated with production, with the production of goods or services for exchange in a market, in contrast to consumption, which is defined as a non-work or leisure-time activity, whereas at work we exchange time and labour power for a monetary reward. Work is portrayed as a male realm, in terms of numerical and power dominance, and as the arena in which masculinity is produced, while the feminine sphere is the home and family. From the above analysis, it can be safely determined that the question of whether capitalism requires the subordination of women, or whether historically capitalism has facilitated the entrenchment of male dominance, remains disputed as this question cannot be resolved without some reference to the relations between the sexes at different historical periods and in different modes of production. It is argued that women’s status as workers has recently declined. The precise interrelations of production and reproduction, in any general terms which can be applied to different situations, remain elusive. But a considerable body of knowledge now exists on specific interrelationships of production, reproduction, and women’s oppression.

Description