The article critiques Adam Smith's omission of domestic labor in his economic theories, highlighting the historical and ongoing reliance on women's unpaid contributions. It emphasizes Silvia Federici's ideas about how this unpaid labor is central to capitalism yet often ignored in discussions of economic value. Despite advances, women in contemporary society still disproportionately engage in domestic tasks, reflecting a persistence of gendered economic oppression that underpins capitalist systems. Federici argues for a broader recognition of domestic work's significance to both economic systems and societal structures, urging a reevaluation of what constitutes labor.
"The necessity and value of domestic labor was absent from [Adam Smith's] reflections on men acting in their own self-interest. The real invisible hands in Smith's accounting of the market remain conspicuously excluded."
"Unpaid domestic work is a form of gendered economic oppression, and in some ways, the core exploitation upon which all of modern capitalism is built," summarizes Silvia Federici's perspective on the issue.
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