Reproductive Work: Caregiving

Reading and Writing Assignment – Due by 3/26

Reading and Writing Assignment: Be sure to read the Key Concepts

Introduction to Women's Roles in the Colonial and Early National Eras.

• Read “Midwifery and Women’s Work in the Early American Republic: A Reconsideration of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale” by Tanfer Emin Tunc. https://www-jstor-org.library.esc.edu/stable/40865695?seq=1
• Also read: Martha Ballard’s practice of midwifery described in A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Chapter 5. https://dohistory.org/book/100_chapter5_txt.html
• Read through chapter, focus on pages 193-196 that gives details about the number of children a woman gave birth to in her lifetime, throughout her childbearing years, and about Martha Ballard’s reproductive and caretaking role as midwife in her community. 

Using the terms that you are learning in the "Key Concepts" when they are appropriate, write a 5 page doubled-spaced essay (1000-1500 words) about your own “reproductive” work, whether that includes giving birth or childcare, or other ‘housework’ and caregiving over the course of a couple of “typical” days. Compare and contrast “reproductive” work historically in the colonial era, based on what you know from Martha Ballard's diary and the study of slave women's lives by Jennifer Morgan, and in current-day society. How did society value reproductive work in the colonial era, how does it value reproductive work today? What portion of your day do you devote to “reproductive” work versus “productive” work? What do you find rewarding about reproductive work? What do you find frustrating about reproductive work?

When you are including quotes or other specific information from the assigned readings in your essays [and you should be doing this!!] include a brief reference following the quote or the specific information you want to reference by including the author's name and page number in parentheses following the quote. Examples: (Morgan, p. 70) (Tunc, p. 427) (Ballard, p. 194)

M1 Key Concepts

“Public” versus “private” "separate" spheres of society 

Western societies, including the American colonies [1600s-1770s) and the United States (1780s-present), have historically recognized two gender “norms”, male/masculine and female/feminine and have delineated two separate spheres of society linked to one of these gender norms. The “public” sphere of paid work, government, politics and war-making has historically been designated a male/masculine and privileged realm of human activity; and the “private” or domestic sphere of the home and family that focuses on nurturing and care giving and has historically been designated as a female/feminine and subordinate realm. At all points in history, the strict separation of public from private realms of society does not represent lived experience of “all” men or “all” women in American society

“Productive” versus “reproductive” labor

In the language of classical political economists, “productive” labor contributes to increasing society’s wealth. Productive labor performed in the “public” sphere results in goods or services that have a monetary value in the capitalist market economy and is therefore compensated with a paid wage. “Reproductive” labor is a term first used by feminist activists and theorists to describe care work and services performed in the “private” sphere that is not compensated with a paid wage. This has included unpaid childcare, elder care, and housework, as well as labor associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

“Sexual division of labor”

The sexual division of labor refers to the delegation of different tasks in a society according to biological sex differences, based on the attributes and behaviors assigned to those sex differences by different human societies. The sexual division of labor is not uniform or universal for all human societies or for all points in time. Rather, the sexual division of labor has transformed at different stages of human development, and has distinct characteristics within different cultural contexts or based on different patterns of social organization or different modes of production.

For Your Consideration:

In the U.S., women spend 4.52 hours a day on unpaid work compared with men’s 2.76  hours according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Those unpaid work hours add up to 11.46 more hours per week and 596 more hours per year. While it’s true the gap has narrowed since the U.S. started collecting this data in 1965, women still do a disproportionate amount of unpaid work — and that’s on top of their paid jobs. Per day, women work on average 8.63 hours (combining paid and unpaid work hours); men work on average 8.29 hours (combining paid and unpaid work hours).