(1940) - In Woman's Defense - Mary Inman

In Mary Inman's In Woman's Defense, she addresses the problem of the undervaluation and invisibility of housework, particularly the labour of housewives, within capitalist society. She argued that while housewives' work is essential to the functioning of the economy, it is not recognized as productive labour. Instead, it is seen as domestic and insignificant, despite sustaining the work force and enabling workers to contribute to industrial production. The legalization of women's subordination, she comments, is not by the middle class men but by the small group of powerful upper-class men. Inman critiques this devaluation of housework as a strategy used by the capitalist class to maintain women’s economic dependence and uphold their subordinate status within society.