In a series of interviews with Louise Toupin, groundbreaking feminist thinkers Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa return to the movement they co-founded in 1972—the International Feminist Collective. The feminist collective originated the radical and controversial demand for wages for housework. From these powerful roots, they continue to explain how their political thinking developed over time, formulating an intersectional critique of neoliberal capitalism with a crisis of social reproduction at its heart.
What People Are Saying
“A foundational text for rethinking work, power, and liberation. These riveting interviews capture the daring originality of the global Wages for Housework movement of the 1970s and make clear how essential its ideas remain if we are to save our world. Radical analysis at its most humane, bold, and necessary. Their truths should be ours.” Dorothy Sue Cobble, distinguished professor emerita, Department of History and Labor Studies, Rutgers University
“In conversation with these two feminist luminaries, Louise Toupin explores the intellectual and political trajectory of social reproduction feminism with great care and insight. In these interviews, Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa reflect on some fifty years of activism and writing. They explain how a radical new perspective on women’s place in capitalism emerged and then developed in tandem with political struggle and draw a thread connecting 1970s social reproduction feminism to more recent theorizations of antiracist feminist ecosocialism. This is an invaluable resource for everyone interested in building a broad-based anticapitalist movement from below.” Susan Ferguson, author of Women and Work: Feminism, Labour, and Social Reproduction
“The intellectual contributions of Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa were foundational to the development of social reproduction theory and the broader Marxist-Feminist tradition. But in these incredibly rich and wide-ranging conversations, we gain a fuller understanding of the lives, politics, and activism of these two seminal figures. The Crisis of Social Reproduction is a study in praxis.” Simon Black, professor, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University
“This book offers a fascinating look into the origins and evolution of the feminist thinking of two preeminent feminist activists. From their 1970s Wages for Housework action to their present day activism, the book offers an insightful analysis of the continued struggle to recognize women’s labour and economic worth in the home, (paid) workplace, and the informal economy, in both the developing and developed world. Despite a history of both successes and defeats, the book offers a positive outlook for feminist activism.” Susana P. Miranda, coauthor of Cleaning Up: Portuguese Women’s Fight for Labour Rights in Toronto
“In The Crisis of Social Reproduction Toupin invites Federici and Dalla Costa to reflect on the Wages for Housework movement, its seminal texts and important lessons, and the relationship between political thinking, experience, and practice. As Federici says, we must ‘learn to make a sustainable revolution.’ Such a quest must be open to constant reconfiguration in order not to lose its sensitivity to social realities.” Nina Trige Andersen, historian, journalist, and activist
About the Contributors
Silvia Federici is a feminist writer, teacher, and militant. In 1972 she was cofounder of the International Feminist Collective that launched the Wages for Housework campaign. Her books include Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women; Caliban and the Witch; Re-enchanting the World; and Revolution at Point Zero.
Mariarosa Dalla Costa was born in Treviso, Italy, in 1943. She studied at the University of Padua, received her doctorate in law in 1967, and was a professor at the Istituto di Scienze Politiche e Sociali. She is the author of the founding document of the Wages for Housework perspective published in 1972, translated into English as The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community. She lives in Padua, Italy.
Louise Toupin lives in Montreal, Quebec. She has taught political science at Université du Québec à Montréal. She was a member of the Québec Women’s Liberation Front (1969-71) and co-authored numerous anthologies of activist and feminist writings. She is the author of Wages for Housework: A History of an International Feminist Movement, 1972-77.