Gender and the Future of Work

3 units

Work is a central category of human experience, a meaning-making and identify-forming activity, and a site of struggle. It is also both shaped by, and helps constitute the meaning of, gender. This course asks the following questions: How has work been theorized in the history of political thought, and how ought we conceptualize work today? How does the gendering of work naturalize certain forms of labor, such as domestic work, mothering, and gestation? How might individuals resist these processes, thus remaking the meaning of work? And finally, what do we want the future of work to be? This course is divided into four parts, which track these four questions. First, we will read canonical works in political theory that frame the debate on work. Then, in part two we will move beyond gender-free conceptions of work, looking at kinds of work that have been quintessentially defined as “women’s work,” including domestic work, sex work, and gestational labor. Third, we will turn to the politics of resistance and the refusal of work, focusing on feminist refusals. Here, we look at social movements and moments in feminist history that challenge the naturalization of gendered labor, including the Wages for Housework movement and the Women’s Strike. Finally, we will conclude with a unit on the future of work that once again centers work’s gendered dimensions.