The social reproduction of labour in the context of the work of women: Past and present

After the primary role that Gordon Childe assigned to women in prehistory in both the beginnings of agriculture and cattle-domestication, women have been placed at an inferior position in both the realms of production and consumption. Even when they were employed in factories after the Industrial Revolution, they were paid much lower wages than men workers. As Marx pointed out, however, wages have to cover the entire family expenses, and, on this count, wage-levels in colonial countries, even after 'decolonisation', have not reached appropriate levels. In colonial India, owing both to tribute and free trade, Indian labouring women, for example, spinners, suffered very grievous hardship. Today it is essential that poverty-lines should be raised and minimum wages adjusted to subsistence needs.