Gender issues: some considerations on the production/reproduction relation in the definition of the meaning of “common”

Abstract

In this essay the quality and the recent transformation of the domestic work of reproduction and care are taken into account, setting them in the gender dimension and highlighting the changes produced by a different relationship between women and the labor market. As necessary to the reproduction of the species, the element of care for dependent persons (we are all “dependent” in a part or another of our lives) is developed as related to the path of individual autonomy in the public sphere relentlessly undertaken by women, at least in the Western side of the World. One of the most open questions is whether the acquired role of women in the public sphere can be considered as an "unfinished revolution" or it is a sort of "put on paid work" of women caused by the need of increased social productivity. Another open question is the relationship among women's work, social spending and the modification of the traditional relations between sexes. Is this about creating balance (life time, work time)? Or it’s a matter of sharing? What part of the sphere of affection, of the family, of the care in itself can become "common" (not private, not public, nor State nor the market)? A third issue is that of subjectivities and the differences we find in the process of change: migrants, native, mothers, women with a permanent job, poor persons, women of different ages and different backgrounds. Beyond the usual analysis on the historic "loss", or on the "delay" of women in entering the “polis” and beyond the imposition of a subordinate role of women in the society, coming from the biological sphere (shared by all women), who is capable of managing to impose its point of view as the main one and how can he/she confront the challenge? How can women and men deal with the reproduction of oneself and of the species stepping outside the patterns of exploitation and subjugation?

Key words: Care, Production, Reproduction