Productive Bodies, Docile Women and Violence

Chloë K Gott

doi:10.1163/18785417-bja10008

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on the Government of Ireland Collaborative Research Project, ‘Magdalene Institutions: Recording an Archival and Oral History’, this paper explores the nature of women’s experiences in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries though the lens of forced work. I argue that the perceived nature of the work done by the women—productive, respectable, ‘women’s work’—significantly impacted on how the abusive nature of the laundries has been considered by official bodies and wider Irish society. This paper focuses on work done in these institutions and how it was viewed, using interviews from survivors and those who visited the laundries. By exploring the links between work and respectability, productivity and morality, with particular attention to the ways this plays out upon the bodies of women, this article argues for an understanding of this work as a violent and disciplinary process, designed to produce the desired Irish Catholic female body: docile and productive, penitential and obedient.

Highlights

In June 2018, I volunteered at Dublin Honours Magdalenes, a two-day event to commemorate survivors of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries
The report concluded that there had been significant state involvement in the Magdalene institutions. Whilst this was undoubtedly an important event in the timeline of the Magdalene institutions, the report has been critiqued by survivors, activists and human rights organisations (e.g., McGettrick et al 2021; O’Rourke et al 2017; McGettrick et al 2015; Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission 2015), who feel that the process of the Committee, and the final report, was not an accurate representation of experiences as told by the women who gave testimony
I wish to demonstrate the ease with which wider Irish society was able to erase and ignore the violence suffered by women in Magdalene institutions, reframing them in penitential or reformatory terms, as a result of ingrained ideas around morality and gott productive work

Summary

Introduction

In June 2018, I volunteered at Dublin Honours Magdalenes, a two-day event to commemorate survivors of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries. Whilst this was undoubtedly an important event in the timeline of the Magdalene institutions, the report has been critiqued by survivors, activists and human rights organisations (e.g., McGettrick et al 2021; O’Rourke et al 2017; McGettrick et al 2015; Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission 2015), who feel that the process of the Committee, and the final report, was not an accurate representation of experiences as told by the women who gave testimony An example of this can be seen, which sets out to examine living and working conditions in the laundry, stating that “ this Chapter identifies a number of patterns among the stories shared with it, the Committee did not make specific findings in relation to this issue [of living and working conditions], in light of the small sample of women available” (McAleese 2013, 925). I argue that conceptualising this work as productive labour, rather than punishment and physical violence, ignores the harsh realities endured by survivors of the Magdalene institutions

Public Perceptions of the Magdalene laundries

Conclusion