The Politics of Reproduction: In Defense of Birth Strikes

• In Event: Strikes, Labor Unions, and Political Theory

Abstract

This paper examines an overlooked site of politics: the steep decline in birth rates in advanced
industrial societies. These birth rates, far below replacement levels, pose formidable
challenges—commonly labeled ‘demographic crises’—to the provision of care and the
maintenance of society. Contrary to the prevalent view among policymakers, who treat
declining fertility as a ‘social ill’, this paper argues that these phenomena should be understood
as 'birth strikes,’ or more broadly, as strikes of reproduction. They represent deliberate mass
work stoppages against the current division of reproductive labor. From this perspective, the
crises induced by low fertility are not pathologies in need of a 'cure’ or ‘fix.’ They are rather
disruptions created by women reclaiming of control over their lives, similar to disruptions
created by strikers reclaiming of control over their productive agency. This paper proposes a
democratic approach against the technocratic, social-engineering approach to crises of care,
foregrounding the empowerment of those tasked with reproductive labor by existing social
structures.
The argument draws upon contemporary feminist movements of birth strikers in South Korea
and the United States. It also addresses objections that birth strikes are not proper strikes due
to their differences from traditional labor strikes, offering theoretical reflections on what
constitutes a strike. By doing so, the paper aims to expand democratic theory of political
economy to encompass the informal economy of reproduction, bridging feminist theory with
political economy and demographic studies.

Author

• Yunhyae Kim, Harvard University