The reproductive crisis in neoliberal capitalism: Commenting on D. Elson’s recent paper

Abstract In the first section, this paper comments favorably on Elson’s recent paper applying the “gender lens” to rising economic inequalities under neoliberal capitalism. Although increased participation of women in the labor market reduced economic inequalities within and between households to some extent, it widened the income gap between capital and labor. I note and comment on similar trends in the Japanese economy. In the second section, this paper examines how to reread Piketty as “patrimonialism without patriarchy” in light of Elson’s critique. In the third section, the widening economic and gender inequalities are located as an important link in the vicious circle of reproductive crisis of our societies, with suggestions for a sounder theoretical foundation and possible strategies for dealing with such crisis for the future.