The New Caring Class. Feminism and the Social Reproduction of Inequalities

Sara R. Farris - Goldsmiths University of London 
The New Caring Class. Feminism and the Social Reproduction of Inequalities

Abstract
In this paper I will present the initial findings of an ongoing research project on the class dimensions of care ad domestic workers, with a special focus on the UK. In the project I ask whether the significant rise of care and domestic workers over the last forty years has led to the constitution of a new class of female and racialised labourers. Set against the background of key neoliberal changes, and interrogating feminism’s traditional focus on emancipating women from caring and domestic tasks whilst championing paid work outside the household, the paper will highlight both the specificity of this new class of workers, and the challenges they represent for feminist theorising and activism.