The Means of Reproduction
Interview with Silvia Federici By Lisa Rudman and Marcy Rein
s a feminist activist, writer, and teacher, Silvia Federici engages and inspires students of all ages to fight for the lib - A eration of women and all beings. In 1972, Federici cofounded the International Feminist Collective, which launched the “Wages For Housework” campaign. While teaching and researching in Nigeria in the 1980s, she observed the specific impacts of globalization on women—and their similarities to the social disruption caused by the enclosure of the commons in the earliest days of capitalism. She became active in the anti-globalization move - ment and the U.S. anti-death-penalty movement, and cofounded the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa. From 1987 to 2005 she taught international studies, women’s studies, and political philosophy at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. Her books and essays span philosophy, feminist theory, women’s history, educa - tion, and culture, and more recently, the worldwide struggle against capitalist globalization and for a feminist reconstruction of the commons. Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body and Primitive Accumulation , perhaps her best-known work, argues that capitalism depends on a constant supply of women’s unwaged labor. Federici sat down for this interview while she was on a tour to promote her new book, Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (Common Notions ), a collection of essays written over the last forty years. In 55 conversation, Federici moves smoothly between history, theory, and present struggles, hardly stopping for breath, almost vibrating with concern and indignation.
Q: What is reproduction and why have you made it a central issue in your analysis? Silvia Federici: It’s important politically to con - front the question of reproduction because we are experiencing an unprecedented crisis of reproduc - tion. When I speak of reproduction, I don’t speak only in the sense of procreation, although that is part of it, but of all the activities necessary for the reproduction of human life—from housework to subsistence agriculture, to the production of culture and care for the environment. The policies brought in by the neoliberal agenda they have been defunded and privatized; all these have, in fact, made reproduction a question for mil - struggles together [are] what I mean by struggles of n lions of people across the world. We’ve witnessed a reproduction. Photo: Silvia Federici tremendous attack on our means of reproduction— I’m very disappointed that Governor [Jerry] giving a speech at the on every form of sustenance from wage employment Brown of California decided not to sign the bill of Museo d'Art Contem - porani de Barcelona to services to access to nature and the common - rights that domestic workers have fought for for a (MACBA) museum in wealth—land, water, and forests. long time. It represents a very important moment in Barcelona. The struggle of domestic workers, of the mothers the struggle for the redefinition of reproduction and of Fukushima, of subsistence farmers across the puts some value on this work and gives power to the cc Kippelboy/Wikime - world; the struggle in the public schools because people [engaged in] reproductive labor. dia Commons
Race, Poverty & the Environment | Vol. 19 No. 2 — 2012 Reimagine Women & Economic Justice
Today, for millions of people, the question of less uniform than usually imagined. At the same time whether they’ll be able to reproduce is answered in the that millions of women were entering the labor force in negative. There’s hardly one basic service that has not the U.S., many in Europe were losing their jobs—for been slashed, [affecting] children, older people, health - example, in the former socialist countries—which in care. Really basic necessities have all been decimated. fact, triggered a tremendous migration from Russia, So, clearly what’s needed is a new broad mobilization Moldavia, Ukraine. on the question of reproduction that connects all the The same is true for much of Africa, parts of Asia, different struggles. and Latin America, where the programs of structural adjustment really cut a lot of women’s jobs. That’s why Women in the Waged Workforce so many women have had to migrate, seeking an Q: Feminist struggles for equality under capitalism from the income doing domestic work or sex work, or working 1960s through the ‘80s did actually move what had been as nurses across the globe. unwaged women’s work into the paid economy, even if it Secondly, women entered the waged workforce in was often as waged domestic labor, such as home care. Did the United States at the very time—the 1980s—when that improve the condition of women and the working class that workforce and the workplace were under tremen - as a whole? dous attack; when this massive attack on workers’ enti - Federici: If we look at the world, and not only the tlement and workers’ rights was launched under Rea - situation in the United States, Europe, or Japan, we see that, in fact, what we call globalization and the massive entrance of women into wage work is much
56 Birth Control and Women’s Labor
By Shanelle Matthews
Among the myriad reasons why women chy, and politicians like Rick Santorum—cite control and rely on federally funded pro - use birth control, one of the most obvious the sanctity of life as their justification. But grams like Planned Parenthood, a federal is—we work. A recent study 1 finds that it’s evident that they want to see women ban would be like telling them to not have women believe improved career outcomes confined to antiquated gender roles and out sex at all. are a direct result of access to contracep - of the workplace. The Christian fundamen - Since no ban on birth control will curb tives. Women make up almost half the work - talist “Quiverfull” movement is explicit on our innate human need to have sex, we are force, 2 so our contributions are integral to this point. 3 Mary Pride’s The Way Home: likely to see a spike in pregnancies, which the economy. Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality quotes require working women to take leave, some In 1960, when Enovid, the first birth the Bible to maintain that women’s role is of whom will never return. According to the control pill, received FDA approval, U.S. as “mothers, as bearers of children, and Working Mother Research Institute, 35 women began weighing their options. workers in the home under the authority of percent of career-oriented moms stay home Without unintended pregnancies, they could a husband.” 4 after giving birth because the cost of child - pursue higher education and improve their Many studies show that limiting access care is too high. Another 19 percent do not value in the job market—and they did just to birth control increases the likelihood of return because of the birth of additional that. The pill revolutionized women’s ability unintended pregnancies, which according to children. 6 Having a child, whether intended to have successful careers outside the home. the Brookings Institution, account for over or unintended, increases the strain on family Opponents of contraception—fundamen - 50 percent of pregnancies every year. 5 For resources. This does not change for women talist Christians, the Catholic Church hierar - women who can’t afford access to birth who become pregnant because of limited n Photos: (Left) Courtesy of rc-boat.livejournal.com; (Right) Courtesy of womenshealth.gov.
Race, Poverty & the Environment | Vol. 19 No. 2 – 2012 ganism. So, while women have gained more autono - my certainly from men, they’ve not gained autonomy from capital. Their life has become a life of perma - nent crisis. Women now have to juggle a paid job and work at home, in many cases also taking care of the family or sick family members. Among working class women, life expectancy is beginning to decline, according to some recent reports. In the U.S., women can expect to live three to four years less than their mothers, which is a very telling sign of the crisis of reproduction. Also, because reproductive work is historically devalued in capitalist society, the wages and labor conditions that immigrant women in domestic work can look for are Q: Can you describe the evolution of your thinking, from n abysmally low in the great majority of cases. the Wages for Housework campaigns of the 1970s to now? Photo:
The domestic workers’ struggle is very much con - Federici: The Wages for Housework campaign was “Ex-Slave with a Long ducted on all these fronts: reproductive work and the extremely important. It was like a lever to undo and Memory” from the book Image and Imagi - fact that society has yet to recognize the importance destabilize a certain sexual division of labor that was nation: Encounters of it; the struggle around immigration; and [the based precisely on the fact that this work was unpaid. with the Photography of Dorothea Lange. struggle] against racial prejudices, [since] many are It was never an ultimate goal but a strategy to change women of color, from an Asian or African back - power relations and undermine the dependence of 1938 Dorothea Lange ground. women on the male wage. Courtesy of the Farm Service Administration 57
access to birth control. That it took women until the 21st century While some argue that being a stay-at- to argue for their right to birth control. But Endnotes home mom is a luxury, families at the the truth is there has never been a time in 1.
Shanelle Matthews (shanellematthews.org) is the communications manager for Forward Together (forwardtogether.org).
Race, Poverty & the Environment | Vol. 19 No. 2 — 2012 Reimagine Women & Economic Justice
Often, women thought that we were asking the husband to pay a wage. No, we were asking the state for wages for housework, not wages for housewives, because this is work. Think for a minute [of] the range of social services that the employer class would have to put into place if there hadn’t been a woman all this time at home, making sure that the next morning this person could go to the work - place restored, for another day’s work. [Imagine if] a woman had not done the labor—under the name of community building. washing, the cooking, [the taking] care of the kids, the The state has always tried to control women’s consoling [of] the children and the husband; [or pro - bodies because they are the vehicle for the production vided] emotional support and sexual services (which of workers. From their point of view, we are machines are very important part of the work expected of for the production of labor power. There’s a direct women). It took a long struggle for women to recog - connection between women’s reproduction of children nize rape in the family [and] the idea that the woman’s and the dynamics of the labor market. body is [hers]. Now, they haven’t always wanted more children. In 58 Struggles that begin to reclaim the wealth [women many cases, they have wanted women to be sterilized produce in the home] are extremely important. But when the children they produced demanded more today I don’t see those struggles only as being at the than the capitalist class was willing to concede. But monetary level. Lately I’ve been very interested in the the issue has always been the desire to control the question of the commons and [reclaiming] many female body, both in terms of the labor market and forms of wealth that are not connected with the wage also of the discipline and the relationship between system. women and men. We want to reclaim housing, land, the right to free As we learned in the feminist movement, [often] education. These are all elements of what I would say the first obstacle a woman encounters when she wants is [part] of reproduction. to make a fight is not directly the state but the man in the family. So, it has been very useful and productive Power of Procreation for the state that men have this power over women Q: Could you comment on the attacks on women’s right to and procreation. Sexuality has been part of their control our bodies, and the drive to circumscribe the con - mechanism of surveillance and policing of women. We ditions under which we can relate, have children, and get now have this situation where on one side, the right services to support those children? wing is sponsoring every military campaign so that n Federici: Well, I think it’s playing an enormous role children all over the world [are being] decimated,
Graphic: because it really attempts to institute subordination of [while on the other], they are cutting the services that women to men. Within the family, the state expects would allow children and families to thrive, leading to Strong Families. We de - serve ALL of our human women to pick up all the work—as they always did, a continuous increase in the infant mortality rate. rights, reproductivejus - but now more than ever—that is accumulating Then, with a hypocrisy that has no limits, they ticeblog.org. because of the cuts in services. For instance, in want to tell us that if the children we carry in our England, the Big Society program that Cameron has womb are born badly, that is our responsibility. ©2012 Kortney Ryan Ziegler/Forward To - sponsored for some years is built on the mobilization There’s a very complex set of disciplinary objectives gether of a lot of volunteer work—unpaid, mostly women’s that passes through control of our bodies.
Race, Poverty & the Environment | Vol. 19 No. 2 – 2012 Student Debt around the issue of reproduction. I’d like to see a Q: I know you’ve spoken about how education brings movement that reopens a mass struggle on that together this longstanding trajectory of austerity, privati - ground and connects all these different fronts. So, zation, and debt. Could you explain that more? those who work in the home are not isolated and Federici: It’s a disgrace because education should there’s a breakdown of the walls between the home not be something that is bought and sold. In fact, and the community, the home and the neighbor - there’s now a movement against debt, which has hood. [Then] we can begin to think of a more collec - taken off over the last year and is spreading across the tive way of reproducing ourselves because when you country. It’s very important because it makes a key have a person who’s not self-sufficient, or with young issue [of] the fact that the debt is illegitimate. children, you can’t expect [them] to take on [repro - The debt should not be paid because it comes out duction], except at a tremendous cost. of an unjustified policy [that] basically says you can buy and sell ideas; buy and sell education. If you are Q: What is “commoning” exactly? What are some of the a student, you’re told you have no future if you don’t models for people trying to create more “commoning?” have an education. There’s something fraudulent hap - Federici: Some of the models for commoning pening here. Students have been asked to do some - have come from countries in Latin America [and] thing that is really impossible. Education should not Africa that were subjected to very devastating be a commodity—something that you put on the processes of economic liberalization in the ‘80s, counter as if it’s a tube of toothpaste. [when] many communities found themselves com - pletely deprived of access to money and land. So, Q: You were talking about educational debt; I was think - women started coming together and organizing col - ing also about the level of credit card debt burdening the lectively out of necessity, to make common kitchens, 59 working class because employers have been increasingly shop together, cook together—breaking down that unwilling to negotiate terms and conditions that will let division between the home and the neighborhood. people survive. At the same time, other women began to farm Federici: In New York, the movement began as together, also breaking down the separation between students against the debt. That is still on, but it’s country and town. So, in response to a crisis there become part of a broader movement that is now [was] a big thrust towards the collectivization of struggling against debt as an instrument of discipline. reproduction. We see more and more, debt becoming the tool Now this is happening in the U.S. For example, through which people are exploited and the tool the proliferation of solidarity economies is very through which the capitalist class accumulates wealth. interesting. There [are] hundreds of time banks There’s a broad front, because when you are [with] people sharing services: I do so many hours of exploiting a person as a debtor rather than as a work for you cutting hair and for those hours, you worker, you have a very different type of relation. may teach me how to manage a radio, for example. The work involved becomes invisible. The exploita - These are very important signs of a new form of tion relation becomes invisible. sociality and a new economy coming into existence. I think that the Occupy movement has two ele - Shape of Movement to Come ments: the political [and] also sociality—wanting to Q: What response do you see or would like to see to this? be together, wanting to exchange, the organization Federici : I’d like to see a new broad-based, mass- of cooking, cleaning, and space shared. It’s moving based, women’s movement because [it] mobilized in that direction. n
Marcy Rein is a freelance reporter and frequent contributor to RP&E. Lisa Rudman is the executive director of the nationally syndicated radio program, Making Contact , at whose studios this interview was recorded. Edited by B. Jesse Clarke, engineered by Salima Hamirani, transcribed by Daniel Salazar.
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