Domestic Labor

Domestic labor refers to the work of maintaining households and caring for family members, including cooking, cleaning, laundry, childcare, and emotional support, which is carried out unpaid within families or paid in the case of domestic workers. Feminist theory made it a central subject of social analysis. Ann Oakley’s The Sociology of Housework documented the monotony and low status of housework, and the Wages for Housework campaign associated with Silvia Federici, Selma James, and Mariarosa Dalla Costa argued that unpaid domestic labor reproduces the workforce and underpins capitalism. Christine Delphy and Heidi Hartmann linked it to patriarchal relations, and Arlie Hochschild described the second shift, in which employed women also perform most household work, and later examined emotional labor and global care chains. Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild highlighted how migrant women supply care for wealthier households, and Evelyn Nakano Glenn examined racialized divisions of reproductive labor. Marilyn Waring criticized national accounts for ignoring unpaid work, and Judy Wajcman has studied technology and housework. Time-use surveys show persistent gender gaps. Domestic labor remains central to research on gender, family, inequality, migration, care, and the economy.