Silvia Federici, the 78-year-old socialist feminist scholar and theorist has long been a champion of acknowledging the value of the unpaid or low-wage labor of women in American society. The challenges of Covid 19 have caused the middle and upper classes to appreciate the role that unpaid mothers at home and underpaid women in the role of teachers and elder care workers, for example, play in our economic system. “Capitalism, as a social-economic system, is necessarily committed to racism and sexism. For capitalism must justify and mystify the contradictions built into its social relations … denigrating the ‘nature’ of those it exploits: women, colonial subjects, the descendants of African slaves, the immigrants displaced by globalization.”[i]
“Rather than a frantic return to normalcy when the pandemic ends, we would need to embrace more sustainable, inclusive models of women’s empowerment, buttressed by truly progressive policies like health care for all, paid leave for anyone caring for a baby and a universal basic income for anyone raising children in the home.”[ii]
Michela M (age 9) says: “I believe that girls should get paid as much as boys do in jobs. I don’t know why they’re not, but it’s not right. Just because we’re girls doesn’t mean we don’t work hard enough! Girls can do everything boys can do and more. Not getting paid the same amount is just wrong.”[iii] You are right Michela, there is no more shocking behavior in a society that prides itself on being fair than exploiting women.
________________
Supplemental Reading: History: His-story and Her-story, The Human Community
#10 Exploiting Women
[i] Kisner, Jordan. “The Future of Work.” The New York Times Magazine. February 21, 2021, pp. 56-57.
[ii] Brooks, Kim. “On Families: Feminism Has Failed Women.” The New York Times. December 27, 2020, p. 6.
[iii] M. Michela. The New York Times Opinion. February 28, 2121, p. 12.
