Production/Reproduction

Women have traditionally been invisible in studies of the international political economy (IPE). Indeed, women continue to be invisible in most mainstream and even many critical theorisations of IPE today. The issue of reproduction illuminates central debates about the continued exclusion of women in IPE. This chapter seeks to outline the history of feminist engagement with the concept of reproduction, particularly social reproduction, and with the reproductive economy in the IPE literature and the possibilities and limitations of various approaches. Following this, it is argued that feminist analyses focusing on women's work and social reproduction challenge the fundamental basis of much politico-economic thinking rather than simply being ancillary to it. Ultimately, it is suggested that future attempts to make women's work visible must put women's experiences at the core of analytic thinking rather than attempting to make women's experiences fit pre-existing politico-economic models…