Intelligence Squared Revisiting Wages for Housework, with Emily Callaci
Mar 30, 2025
Join historian Emily Callaci, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as she revisits the bold Wages for Housework movement from the 1970s. Callaci discusses the fight for recognizing unpaid domestic labor as real work, intertwining feminist thought with historical movements. She highlights the struggles that marginalized women face in the Global South and addresses the impacts of capitalism on environmental racism. The conversation digs deep into redefining labor, challenging gender norms, and empowering women's voices in activism.
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Challenging the System
- The Wages for Housework movement aimed to challenge the global economic system's reliance on unpaid domestic labor.
- They sought to expose this exploitation and imagine alternative societal structures.
Redefining the Working Class
- The movement challenged the traditional view of the working class as solely male factory workers.
- It broadened the definition to include women performing domestic and care work, both in homes and professionally.
The Housework of Cancer
- Wilmette Brown, a key figure, highlighted the extra work imposed on women in marginalized communities due to environmental racism and pollution.
- She coined the term "housework of cancer" to describe the care work involved in coping with environmental illness.
