Exploitation comes home: a critique of the Marxian theory of family labour

Abstract

Social scientists, demographers among them, are slowly beginning to acknowledge that inequalities based on age and sex may have a significant impact on household behaviour. Yet the influence of what is now commonly termed 'patriarchy' on household decisions is almost always pictured in political or ideological terms. The economic consequences of patriarchy are often overlooked, despite the fact that they clearly hold important impli cations for the analysis of production and distribution within the family. Neglect of this particular issue may be partially attributed to the influence of neoclassical economic theory, a theory which not only excludes the possibility of exploitation in any voluntary exchange, but also ignores the way in which individual tastes and preferences are presumably merged into a joint utility function. Yet Marxian theory is equally deserving of blame. While many Marxists are sympathetic to the political perspective of socialist fem inism, most cling to an interpretation of Marxian theory which effectively excludes the very possibility that exploitation could take place within the family. This common interpretation grows out of Marx's exposition of the labour theory of value. Marx was convinced that the labour theory of value could not operate outside the realm of capitalist commodity production because the labour embodied in one good might vary arbitrarily between producers. The actual amount of labour time devoted to pro duction could not be used as a standard of value, because some workers might work more or less efficiently than others. Labour value, he reasoned, should be determined by 'socially necessary' labour time, and the concept of socially-necessary labour time is relevant only if some social forces operate in such a way as to eliminate inefficient producers. Without socially-necessary labour time, there can be no analysis of labour value, and without an analysis of labour value, there can be no analysis of exploitation. The logic of this argument is impeccable. The logic, however, conceals an assumption that seems somewhat inconsistent with the spirit of Marx's theory: the assumption that capitalist competition is the only force that can lead to the systematic elimination of inef