Abstract
The integrity of emotional labour in reproductive labour has been obscured through the privileging of the visible physical components of care-work over the invisible components of care-work that encompass emotional labour. This study explores the perceptions and experiences of emotional labour amongst care-receivers in dual-income middle-to-upper-class households. This project uses qualitative interviews to explore four beneficiaries of care’s perspectives of the role of emotional labour in their personal and social development in dual-income households.This project uses a Marxist Feminist conceptual framework of social reproduction theory as a definition of reproductive labour. The results of this project indicate an acknowledgement of the role of emotional labour as integral component of reproductive labour in aiding the care-receivers’ personal and social development. While the maintenance of emotional support as an activity of reproductive labour is partially a strategic method to negotiate beneficial working conditions by the domestic-worker, care receivers appeared to receive this emotional labour as genuine, especially when the progenitor was extensively absent from the physical household.
Presenters
Phathutshedzo MaboboStudent, MPhil Theories of Justice and Inequality, University of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Marxist Feminist Theory, Emotional Labour, Reproductive Labour, Care-work, Domestic Workers
