Louise Toupin

Revolutionary feminism is resurging across the world. But what were its origins? In the early 1970s, the International Feminist Collective began to organise around the call for recognition of the different forms of labour performed by women. They paved the way for the influential and controversial feminist campaign 'Wages for Housework' which made great strides towards driving debates in social reproduction and the gendered aspects of labour. Drawing on extensive archival research, Louise Toupin looks at the history of this movement between 1972 and 1977, featuring unpublished conversations with some of its founders including Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa, as well as activists from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. Encompassing rich theoretical traditions, including autonomism, anti-colonialism and feminism, whilst challenging both classical Marxism and the mainstream women's movement, the book highlights the power and originality of the campaign. Among their many innovations, these pathbreaking activists approached gender, sexuality, race and class together in a way that anticipated intersectionality and had a radical new understanding of sex work.

Revolutionary feminism is resurging across the world. But what were its origins? In the early 1970s, the International Feminist Collective began to organise around the call for recognition of the different forms of labour performed by women. They paved the way for the influential and controversial feminist campaign 'Wages for Housework' which made great strides towards driving debates in social reproduction and the gendered aspects of labour. Drawing on extensive archival research, Louise Toupin looks at the history of this movement between 1972 and 1977, featuring unpublished conversations with some of its founders including Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa, as well as activists from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. Encompassing rich theoretical traditions, including autonomism, anti-colonialism and feminism, whilst challenging both classical Marxism and the mainstream women's movement, the book highlights the power and originality of the campaign. Among their many innovations, these pathbreaking activists approached gender, sexuality, race and class together in a way that anticipated intersectionality and had a radical new understanding of sex work.

In this first-ever international history of the influential feminist movement Wages for Housework, Louise Toupin draws on extensive archival research and interviews with the movement's founders and activists from Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, and Canada. Featuring previously unpublished conversations with Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa, the book highlights the power and originality of the movement, detailing its theoretical and organizational innovations around the unrecognized labour performed by women. Challenging both classic Marxist theory and the mainstream women's movement, Wages for Housework organized in the 1970s around the idea that domestic or "reproductive" labour is as crucial for the survival of the capitalist system as more typically male "productive" labour. Its activists demanded the wage as a way of ensuring that housework's value be recognized, an idea still hotly debated today. Wages for Housework is a major contribution to the history of feminist and anti-capitalist movements and a provocative intervention into contemporary conversations about the changing nature of work and the gendered labour market.

In this first-ever international history of the influential feminist movement Wages for Housework, Louise Toupin draws on extensive archival research and interviews with the movement's founders and activists from Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, and Canada. Featuring previously unpublished conversations with Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa, the book highlights the power and originality of the movement, detailing its theoretical and organizational innovations around the unrecognized labour performed by women. Challenging both classic Marxist theory and the mainstream women's movement, Wages for Housework organized in the 1970s around the idea that domestic or "reproductive" labour is as crucial for the survival of the capitalist system as more typically male "productive" labour. Its activists demanded the wage as a way of ensuring that housework's value be recognized, an idea still hotly debated today. Wages for Housework is a major contribution to the history of feminist and anti-capitalist movements and a provocative intervention into contemporary conversations about the changing nature of work and the gendered labour market.

In the early twentieth century, abolitionists sought to stamp out sex work by penalizing all involved. In the generation that followed, neo-abolitionists looked at the sex industry from a feminist perspective, claiming that workers were victims caught in a patriarchal matrix. Yet both agreed that sex work was a destructive and corrupting force that should be eliminated. In this lucid and fearless volume, five academics and activists convey their vision of prostitution as work, albeit stigmatized and marginalized labour. In chapters that consider the nature of sex work, the legal framework that seeks to control the sex industry, the historical debates over its existence, the spectre of human trafficking, and community-based activism from within the industry, the authors assert the central place of sex workers in discussions about their lives and work. This book opposes discourses that position sex workers as victims without agency.

In the early twentieth century, abolitionists sought to stamp out sex work by penalizing all involved. In the generation that followed, neo-abolitionists looked at the sex industry from a feminist perspective, claiming that workers were victims caught in a patriarchal matrix. Yet both agreed that sex work was a destructive and corrupting force that should be eliminated. In this lucid and fearless volume, five academics and activists convey their vision of prostitution as work, albeit stigmatized and marginalized labour. In chapters that consider the nature of sex work, the legal framework that seeks to control the sex industry, the historical debates over its existence, the spectre of human trafficking, and community-based activism from within the industry, the authors assert the central place of sex workers in discussions about their lives and work. This book opposes discourses that position sex workers as victims without agency.