There is a tension at the heart of contemporary post-work politics. Forms of labour that are conventionally associated with men are explicitly resisted, whilst forms of work more commonly associated with women are valorised. “Masculinized” labour is escaped, whilst “feminized” labour proliferates – all in a fashion that supposedly marks the end of work. Drawing upon post-autonomist Marxism and second-wave materialist feminism, this book will reject the naturalization of reproductive labour, and seek instead to generate a more robustly feminist post-work politics.
Authors: Nick Srnicek, Helen Hester
There is a tension at the heart of contemporary post-work politics. Forms of labour that are conventionally associated with men are explicitly resisted, whilst forms of work more commonly associated with women are valorised. “Masculinized” labour is escaped, whilst “feminized” labour proliferates – all in a fashion that supposedly marks the end of work. There is a similar tendency within conceptions of the caring economy (which enshrine reproductive labour as the basis of a more equitable society) and feminist criticisms of post-work projects (which warn against the encroachment of automation into social reproduction).
For all of these emerging leftist perspectives, “women’s work” is not only deemed immutable and culturally necessary – it’s seen as a good in itself. As such, this work comes to represent the constitutive limit of contemporary post-work politics. This book will argue that such positions, as they stand, fail to make the alleviation of all forms of drudgery a serious priority. In short, they do not go far enough. Drawing upon post-autonomist Marxism and second-wave materialist feminism, this book will reject the naturalization of reproductive labour, and seek instead to generate a more robustly feminist post-work politics.