The feminist social reproduction theories and their critics

The feminist theories of reproduction have been subjected to three types of criticism: they would be either functionalist or determinist, from an economic or biological point of view.. These criticisms are premised on a misunderstanding of the Marxist notions of production and reproduction and on a reified understanding of what a capitalist society is. Moreover, these criticisms have not been able to offer a solid alternative and have ended up in even greater theoretical stalemates, particularly exemplified by dual and triple systems theories. On the contrary, the notion of social reproduction has the potential to avoid these stalemates, while at the same time suggesting a non-reductionist account of the capitalist mode of production: one in which capital is not seen as the subject of a strictly “economic” process.