Approaches to Researching and Representing Women’s Work

Despite increasing numbers of women entering the workforce, females continue to do more unpaid care- work. Cuts to services, combined with the Covid-19 pandemic have only exacerbated this trend, leading to a mounting crisis in care. From a humanities perspective, this interdisciplinary training-day will encourage students to identify societal presumptions and blind spots about feminised labour. It will offer the framework of social reproduction feminism as way to think about how we order and value different kinds of work, including engaging with key contemporary theorists. It will encourage students to reflect on how ideas of gendered work are threaded throughout cultural representation, before leading academics discuss how they have conceptualised ‘women’s work’ in both written form, and through ethical practice-based research.

Featuring Dr. Kate Houlden (Brunel), Dr. Alden Sajor Marte-Wood (Rice University), Dr. Ella Parry-Davies (Kings) and Mimi Jalmasco (Voice of Domestic Workers). Format will be spread across a workshop session, online paper, and discussion slot.