The document discusses the concept of social reproduction and how it relates to feminist theory. It explains that social reproduction challenges the distinction between productive and reproductive labor, and the labor market and home. Labor related to social reproduction, which is often performed by women, is devalued but still crucial to capitalist accumulation. The document argues that struggles over the structure and distribution of social reproductive labor are fundamental to understanding power dynamics between labor and capital.

20. [Lehman collapse, 15 September 2008 - headlines 16 Sep 2008]

125. Over the past thirty years, despite
being essential to human life,
neoliberal restructuring across the
world has privatised, eroded and
demolished our shared resources,
and ushered in a ‘crisis of social
reproduction.’
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’,
Soundings (Dec 2011), p.73.

126. As a concept social reproduction
has been key to feminist social
theory, because it challenges the
usual distinctions that are made
between productive and
reproductive labour, or between
the labour market and the home.
Feminist Fightback, Cuts are a Feminist Issue

127. Feminist Fightback, Cuts are a Feminist Issue
Labour in this sphere is often
devalued and privatised, and is
typically performed by women in
their ‘double day’ or ‘second
shift’, alongside paid wage
labour.
But reproductive labour of this
kind is just as central to capitalist
accumulation as are other forms
of labour, which means that
struggles over its structure and
distribution are fundamental to
any understanding of issues of
power and the relationships
between labour and capital, as
well as the potential for their
transformation.

129. Over the last quarter of a
century something
fundamental seems to
have changed in the way
in which capitalism works.
The tendency since 1970
has been towards greater
geographical mobility of
capital.

130. Rather than being a modest
helper to the capital
accumulation process,
[finance] gradually turned into
a driving force.
Speculative finance became a
kind of secondary engine for
growth given the weakness in
the primary engine, productive
investment.

132. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Certificate in Equality Studies, Social
Justice and Trade Union Studies
9 January 2015

133. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Equality Framework
UCD Equality Studies Centre,
School of Social Justice

134. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Defining Equality
■ Complex and challenging – difficult questions
■ Different perspectives/ conceptions
■ Considering one group compared to another –
multiple identities for some?
■ Equality of what?
■ Why do we care? Which inequalities matter
most? What kind of society do we want?

135. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Equality Studies Framework
5 Key Dimensions of Equality
■ Resources
■ Respect and recognition
■ Power relations
■ Love, Care & Solidarity
■ Working & Learning
Inter-related and describe the key patterns of inequality in
key systems of society

136. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Resources
■Earned incomes, wages, wealth
ownership and transmission, and
welfare support, resources for needs

137. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Respect and Recognition
■In systems of communication,
interpretation and representation ( key
roles for education and the media)

138. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Power
■Wherever power is enacted -in formal
politics, on boards, committees, in
work and family/personal relations

139. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Love Care and Solidarity
■ wherever relations of love, care, and
solidarity operate - personal
relationships, work relations, community
and associational relations - doing of
care work and the receiving of care

140. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Working and Learning
■ life long learning opportunities, burdens and
benefits of working, rewards, power and prestige
of certain jobs

141. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Levels of Equality
■ Basic Equality – minimum standards
■ Liberal Egalitarianism – accepting inequalities as part of
life but managing them to make them ‘fair’
■ Equality of Condition – a vision of society where
inequalities are eliminated or at least reduced – real
choices

142. UCD Equality Studies Centre
Questions
Applying the Equality Framework / setting a
vision for the Irish Trade Union Movement?
■ What dimensions of equality are of
relevance?
■ What would the vision of an ‘equality-based
Trade Unionism’ look like?