Re-Productive Labor and Women’s Political Inclusion: A Typology of Four Regimes

• In Event: Modes of Labor and Access to Citizenship: Looking beyond Judith Shklar

Abstract

The relationship between labor and the state is a major research enterprise in political science. As the foundation of industrial capitalism, productive labor – the generation and care of things that are not people -- informs major studies of American political development. As the foundation of the family as an institution, reproductive labor – the generation and care of things that are people
– informs the large body of scholarship on the welfare state. I investigate how four types of historical labor regimes affect women’s political inclusion: (1) The ancient Greek polis founded on leisure (no labor), (2) the feudal monarchical state founded on reproductive labor, (3) the modern liberal state founded on productive labor; and (4) the contemporary welfare state founded on a combination of productive and reproductive labor. I find that women’s access to political
rule increases to the degree that reproductive labor is a component of the state.

Author

• Eileen McDonagh, Northeastern University