Although industrialization =/= capitalism, that is what we have now. Industrialization was the shift from agrarian to industrial labor. With this shift came divisions of different kinds of labor. There was [and is] labor performed for wages outside of the home, and uncompensated “reproductive labor” performed inside the home. Underneath capitalism, gender power dynamics work to determine what kind of labor is productive and valuable. The latter, reproductive labor, is not valuable because it is not “productive.” There is no profit to be made and thus, reproductive laborers (generally women) are devalued. Women’s work is parallel to household or maternal work, and not valuing household work mirrors devaluing women’s labor power in markets. But, even though reproductive labor doesn’t technically produce profit, it is an exploitable type of labor and holds patriarchy in place.
But Esrea, how can labor be exploitable if there is no profit being made?
Ok, if I was a capitalist man, I’d want to keep the consumer population growing, right? I’d want to continue to make profits, I’d want to solidify the structures that allow me to make profits, I’d want to essentially *keep everyone in their places.* Cis women reproduce children. Then they grow those children. We don’t have to pay those women for raising children. Children become consumers. Consumers spend money. Consumers spending money means I make profit. Now all I need to do figure out a way to regulate bodies that have uteruses.
It’s important to note, that the “power differential between women and men in capitalist society cannot be attributed to the irrelevance of housework for capitalist accumulation (Sylvia Federici),” only. Capitalism functions as an economic structure, but also as a tailor of the fabric in western culture that informs how we view sex, reproduction, and unpaid reproductive labor as isolated concepts. The mystification of the exploitation of reproductive labor works in the favor of capitalists to hide the ways divisions of labor (productive v reproductive) disadvantages women. It shows up in ways beyond the wage gap, it holds power in shaping policies that police and commodify women’s bodies.
Sources:
History at Normandale 