Silvia Federici
Wages for housework
The unwaged labour capital hides.
Progressive AutonomistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Autonomist hall →- Role
- Theorist & activist
- Era
- b. 1942
- Region
- Italy / US
- Social band
- Progressive
- Placement
- −60 · −74 · +82
§ Where Silvia Federici stands
3 axesFederici's economics centre on reproductive labour. Wages Against Housework (1975) treats housework as unwaged work on which capital relies and demands a wage for it as a way of refusing it, while Caliban and the Witch (2004) reinterprets Marx's primitive accumulation to include the enclosure of land and of women's bodies. Her alternative is the self-managed commons, set out in Re-enchanting the World (2018), rather than state ownership.
Federici favours autonomous self-organisation over parties, unions and the state. The Wages for Housework committees of the 1970s organised women independently of the left's established organisations, and through the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa she opposed the World Bank's structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s and 1990s, which she sees as a new enclosure.
Federici is a radical feminist who sees the sexual division of labour as a pillar of capitalism. Caliban and the Witch (2004) presents the witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a campaign to subordinate women and control reproduction, and Revolution at Point Zero (2012) collects decades of writing on housework, sexuality and care as political questions.
How close are you to Silvia Federici?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalSilvia Federici (b. 1942) is an Italian-American feminist scholar and activist. Born in Parma, she moved to the United States in 1967 to study philosophy at the University at Buffalo, and in 1972 she co-founded the International Feminist Collective, which launched the international Wages for Housework campaign, with Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Selma James and others. She has taught in Nigeria and at Hofstra University in New York, where she became professor emerita.
Federici's pamphlet Wages Against Housework (1975) and her book Caliban and the Witch (2004) made her one of the most influential theorists of social reproduction. She argues that capitalism depends on the unpaid work, mostly by women, that produces and sustains the workforce, and that the European witch hunts helped discipline women's bodies during the transition to capitalism. Her later writing on the commons and on debt, and her co-founding of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, have made her a reference point for feminist and anti-globalisation movements.
Notable for
- 01'Wages Against Housework'
- 02'Caliban and the Witch'
- 03Feminist autonomism
Key works & moments
- 1967Moves from Italy to the United States to study philosophy at the University at Buffalo.
- 1972Co-founds the International Feminist Collective, launching the Wages for Housework campaign.
- 1975Publishes the pamphlet Wages Against Housework.
- 2004Publishes Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation.
- 2012Publishes Revolution at Point Zero, collected essays on housework and feminist struggle.
- 2018Publishes Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons.
In their own words
“They say it is love. We say it is unwaged work.”
§ Minds closest to Silvia Federici
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§ Also in the Autonomist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Silvia Federici's political ideology?
Silvia Federici is a Marxist feminist of the autonomist tradition: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Progressive Autonomist. Economically she sits well to the left (−60), exposing unpaid reproductive labour as capitalism's hidden foundation and championing the commons. On governance she is strongly libertarian (−74), favouring autonomous self-organisation over parties and the state. Socially she is strongly progressive (+82), treating housework, sexuality and the body as central political questions.
Is Silvia Federici left-wing or right-wing?
Left-wing. Federici is an anti-capitalist who argues that capitalism rests on the unpaid labour of women and on the enclosure of common resources, and she has spent decades in feminist, anti-globalisation and commons movements. Within the left she belongs to the autonomist current that came out of Italian workerism: sceptical of parties, unions and state solutions, and focused instead on self-organisation from below, especially among women.
What is the Wages for Housework movement?
Wages for Housework was an international feminist campaign launched in 1972 by the International Feminist Collective, whose founders included Federici, Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James. It demanded that the state pay wages for domestic labour, less as an end in itself than as a way to expose housework and care as work on which capitalism depends. Federici's 1975 pamphlet Wages Against Housework argued that demanding the wage was the first step towards refusing that work. Critics on the left feared the demand would tie women more firmly to the home.
Which minds are closest to Silvia Federici?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Silvia Federici are Franco 'Bifo' Berardi (94% alike), The Refusal of Work (archetype) (93% alike) and Antonio Negri (92% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (0% alike).