UNPAID REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR:
A MARXIST ANALYSIS
Cecilia Beatriz Escobar Mele´ndez
ABSTRACT
This article aims to discuss the effects of unpaid reproductive labour on
labour productivity and production. We make use of a Marxist approach,
recognising in its method and categories the necessary and adequate tools
in order to disclose reality. Capitalism is regarded as patriarchal, and
patriarchy as a set of social relations that dominate women and women’s
labour-power for the benefit of men and capital. We argue that unpaid
reproductive labour involves both class and gender struggles, which affect
in a contradictory manner the capitalist accumulation process. Such
assertion is reached by using an analytical instrument (based on linear
algebra) developed in order to observe the impact that an insufficient
fulfilment of the workers’ necessities has on labour productivity and
production.