CARE TANGIBLE LOVE AND SUPPORT FOR OURSELVES AND OUR NEIGHBORS ALLOWS US TO NURTURE JUST COMMUNITIES OF CARE.
@JUSTTRANSITION_AK
Care-taking is labor. Child-care, elder-care, health-care, disabilitycare, home-care, all of this care requires work. But that work is too often ignored, undervalued, and underpaid. We need to reimagine the economy of care. In a just care economy, we would honor care-givers and, at the same time, we would make appropriate care affordable and accessible for all. The current economy relies on the exploitation of care labor, which is too often the labor of women and girls. Reproductive labor, usually done by women, is the work that enables all other work. Raising children, feeding families, maintaining a home–this work makes all other labor possible. By refusing to pay for this foundational work, others are able to capture the wealth that it creates. In this way, the capitalist economy both relies on and reinforces degrading gender hierarchies. Care-taking outside the home, also usually performed by women, often lacks basic worker protections. For example, caretakers and housekeepers have long been excluded from basic legal protections, like wage laws and contracts with their employers.
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