Hegemony, gender and social reproduction

Gramsci’s reflections on Americanism and Fordism provide an excellent starting point from which to explore the ways that socialist-feminist thought has developed across the last half century. This chapter begins with a short discussion of Gramsci’s key insights on the reproduction of the worker and the dislocating effects of capitalist transformation, before turning to trace the development of a distinctly Gramscian current in socialist-feminist thought across the twentieth century. Some thoughts on the emergence and possible implications of reactionary ‘feminisms’ in our contemporary moment are offered, followed by reflections on the contributions that social reproduction theory (SRT) might make in the struggle for expansive socio-ecological reproduction, in-against-and beyond capital. The chapter concludes with a summary of some key points of tension for progressive social forces seeking to develop and prosecute such an agenda.