Patriarchy and Capitalism

“Patriarchy and Capitalism” (Japanese: 家父長制と資本制, Kafuchōsei to Shihonsei) is a theoretical work published in 1990 by renowned Japanese feminist sociologist Chizuko Ueno (1948-). This book systematically analyzes how “patriarchy” and “capitalism”—two seemingly independent oppression systems—interweave and reinforce each other, jointly constituting structural exploitation of women. It is a classic text of Marxist feminism and an important theoretical resource for understanding the contemporary situation of women’s labor.

At the beginning of the book, Ueno poses a fundamental question: Why is women’s labor—especially housework and care work—considered “unpaid”? Why do women in capitalist society universally bear a double burden (both working and doing housework)?

Traditional Marxism’s answer to this question is insufficient. Marxism analyzed capitalists’ exploitation of workers, but it mainly focused on paid labor occurring in public spheres like factories and offices, while neglecting unpaid labor occurring within households. Yet it is precisely this unpaid labor—cooking, cleaning, caring for children and elderly—that makes paid labor possible.

Ueno’s core argument is: women are simultaneously exploited by two oppression systems.

Capitalism exploits the surplus value created by workers. The wages capitalists pay workers are less than the value workers create; the difference is surplus value, appropriated by capitalists. This exploitation applies to both male and female workers.

Patriarchy exploits women’s domestic labor. Husbands (and more broadly, families and society) enjoy the domestic services provided by wives—meals, clean clothes, care—without paying any compensation. This exploitation targets women.

The key point is: these two systems do not operate separately but are interdependent. Capitalism needs workers to appear at the workplace every day in healthy, energetic condition, and this “reproduction of labor power” is accomplished precisely by women’s unpaid domestic labor. In other words, capitalism functions because it freely exploits women’s labor.

“Patriarchy and Capitalism” systematically reviews the famous “domestic labor debate” in 1970s Western feminism. The core question of this debate was: Does domestic labor create value? Should it receive compensation?

Some feminists (such as Mariarosa Dalla Costa) advocated for “wages for housework,” arguing that states or husbands should pay wages for domestic labor. Others opposed this claim, believing it would reinforce women’s association with domestic labor rather than liberate women.

Ueno reviewed the positions of various parties in this debate and offered her own analysis: whether or not wages should be paid, the key is to recognize the economic value of domestic labor and how it supports the entire capitalist system.

Ueno introduces the concept of “reproductive labor” to analyze the specificity of women’s labor. “Reproductive labor” includes:

• Daily reproduction: Work that restores labor power daily (cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc.)
• Generational reproduction: Work of bearing and raising the next generation of labor power (pregnancy, childbirth, childcare)
• Social reproduction: Work of maintaining social relationships and emotional bonds (caring for elderly, maintaining kinship relations)

The vast majority of this work is done by women, and almost all of it is unpaid. Yet without this work, capitalist “production” could not proceed. Reproductive labor is invisible infrastructure supporting the entire economic system.

An interesting question is: What class do full-time housewives belong to?

Traditional Marxism typically defines housewives’ class according to their husbands’ occupations (e.g., “housewife of a working-class family”). But Ueno points out that this approach obscures housewives’ unique class position—they are actually laborers being exploited within the household. In this sense, all housewives, regardless of whether their husbands are workers or capitalists, are in an exploited position.

This analysis has important political implications: women cannot rely solely on class struggle for liberation, because class struggle often focuses only on exploitation in the public sphere while ignoring patriarchal exploitation in the private sphere. Women need to fight against both capitalism and patriarchy.

“Patriarchy and Capitalism” was published in 1990, but its analysis remains—even more—relevant today.

The development of globalization and neoliberalism has further commodified and outsourced reproductive labor. Middle-class women in wealthy countries can “liberate” themselves by hiring cheap foreign domestic workers, but this merely transfers exploitation to another group of women. Meanwhile, the experience of “working from home” during the pandemic made the unequal distribution of reproductive labor even more visible—when work enters domestic space, it is usually women who bear the additional labor burden.

For any reader wanting to understand women’s economic situation, the value of unpaid labor, and how gender and class intersect, “Patriarchy and Capitalism” is an indispensable theoretical work.