The (re)production of (in)equality in Italy : feminisms and reproductive labour in the era of populism

Drawing on the history of the feminist movement and the contemporary Italian debate, this chapter reflects on the case of reproductive labour as a site for the production of political cultures of (in)equality. By combining a genealogical perspective on Italian feminisms, current statistical data, and feminist political theory, we will look at reproductive labour as a paradigmatic case for a gendered reading of the crisis (Walby 2015) in its intersection with class and racial inequalities. Reproductive labour has been a major area of feminist contestation since the 1970s, and has recently gained a renewed attention in feminist materialist analyses. Within Europe, Italian women spend the highest amount of time in domestic work (Harmonised European Time Use Survey, 2005-2007). Contemporary feminist struggles must work against the backdrop of the current national political situation, characterized by the crisis of left-wing political parties and union organizations, and by the rise of sovereigntism, populism, nativism and conservative catholic forces. Paired with the reduction in welfare spending and austerity measures, such a landscape has intensified both the neofundamentalist re-domesticization of reproductive labour and its neoliberal externalization to the racialized labour market of care work. The chapter concludes with a reflection on contemporary feminist movements in Italy, with particular attention to their intersectional alliances and the transnational circulation of political cultures.