Invisible women: A psycho-economic exploration of domestic and reproductive labor

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the European devaluation of maternal and female domestic labor after the Industrial Revolution as a defensive byproduct of collective male annihilation anxiety due to the replacement of male manual labor by machines. We argue that an abject attitude towards women was codified in law, economic policy and social norms that still exist today, contributing to an ongoing, unconscious, structural degradation of female caregiving. We also suggest this stance towards female labor was exported to post-colonial nations through the global adoption of the gross domestic product statistic, which excludes domestic and maternal labor from national accounting measurements. We draw on Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection, research from the fields of economics and policy analysis—and the burgeoning subfield of narrative economics—to suggest a reparative path forward for both men and women.