For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Dalla Costa, Mariarosa; James, Selma The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community 1973 Book Exploitation, Unpaid Labour, Feminist Critiques of Work Centrality Feminist Movement, Italian Context, Housework, Domestic Labor, Gendered Labor, Gendered Struggle, Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, Capitalist Family, Class Struggle, Wageless, Unpaid Labor, Exploitation, Reproductive Labor, Queer Politics, Surplus Value, Social Factory
Citation with Excerpt Dalla Costa, Mariarosa; James, Selma 1973 Book Feminist Movement Italian Context Housework Domestic Labor Gendered Labor Gendered Struggle Capitalism Socialism Marxism Capitalist Family Class Struggle Wageless Unpaid Labor Exploitation Reproductive Labor Queer Politics Surplus Value Social Factory Exploitation Unpaid Labour Feminist Critiques of Work Centrality

The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community

by Dalla Costa, Mariarosa; James, Selma (1973)

Key Passage

"Never as with the advent of capitalism has the destruction of woman as a person meant also the immediate diminution of her physical integrity. Feminine and masculine sexuality had already before capitalism undergone a series of regimes and forms of conditioning. But they had also undergone efficient methods of birth control, which have unaccountably disappeared. Capital established the family as the nuclear family and subordinated within it the woman to the man, as the person who, not directly participating in social produciton, does not present herself independently on the labor market. As it cuts off all her possibilities of creativity of the development of her wroking activity, so it cuts off the expression of her sexual, psychological, and emotional autonomy." pp. 30-31 (3rd Edition, 1975).

Keywords

Feminist Movement, Italian Context, Housework, Domestic Labor, Gendered Labor, Gendered Struggle, Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, Capitalist Family, Class Struggle, Wageless, Unpaid Labor, Exploitation, Reproductive Labor, Queer Politics, Surplus Value, Social Factory

Themes

Exploitation, Unpaid Labour, Feminist Critiques of Work Centrality

Links to Reference

Citation

Share


How to contribute.
Privacy policy • Contact • Latest updates • Subscribe • RSS

Content Copyright 2025 Jean-Philippe Deranty and Macquarie University. This website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Licence (except for journal/book abstracts and quotations which are the property of their respective authors).


Cite this page as though it were a secondary source, thus the inline citation should be (Dalla Costa, M.; James, S. 1973 cited in Deranty et. al. 2025). In the references, use: