Care work
21
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 21 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Care work".
Sep 8, 2026
speaker_2HOST
Um, you've written that the material related to this, that the material conditions of wage labor are the proper site of a political struggle.
speaker_2HOST
But when we think of feminist work around care work or Black Marxists around post-work and automation as a big issue for wage laborers, why do you defend the wage as a site of political struggle and not other sites?
Catherine LiuGUEST
What else is there if you're not paid a proper wage? I...
Catherine LiuGUEST
You know, the, the feminist argument for care work, that care work should be paid properly, is a good place to start, but, but I...
Catherine LiuGUEST
And I don't see a contradiction between what I'm saying and that necessarily, but I also feel like the kinds of dignity of work have to do with the skill of the worker and his know- her knowledge of the work process.
Catherine LiuGUEST
And so this, um, there's a kind of generalized de-skilling in our culture of, in, under capitalism, and a devaluation of work itself for managerialism.
Catherine LiuGUEST
They don't live on rent, but they manage other workers, and they earn the highest wage.
Catherine LiuGUEST
There is a way of thinking about work and the organization of work as something that values the skill of the worker and says the worker should know how best to organize the work in a large organization.
Elspeth CurrieHOST
So could you talk a little bit about why work is a helpful way to think about women's bodies and sleep in the early modern era?
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
Yeah, I mean, I think it was really, you know, I didn't sort of, I always thought I would need a chapter on women's work, but I didn't kind of set out to write a history of women's work really, although in my kind of more scholarly research areas, like that is like care work is something that I'm really interested in.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
But it was really more that As I've compiled all these examples and did all this reading, I just found that so often when I was looking for abortion, when I was looking for desire, looking for sleep, whatever I was looking for, I was actually just finding stories of women at work.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
Abortion is a story of growing things, growing herbs in the garden.
7 MINS LATER
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
There was a certain skill set that employers were looking for when they hired her.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
And so there's a sense that if everyone knows the kind of wage value of wet nursing, then that breastfeeding was considered work.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
Like it was care work.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
It was like remunerated.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
You know, I didn't sort of...
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
I always thought I would need a chapter on women's work, but I didn't kind of set out to write a history of women's work, really, although, um, in my kind of more scholarly researched areas, like, that is, like, care work is something that I'm really interested in.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
But it was really more that, [clears throat] as I sort of compiled all these examples and did all this reading, like, I just found that so often when I was, like, looking for abortion, when I was looking for desire, looking for sleep, whatever I was looking for, I was actually just finding stories of women at work.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
Like, abortion is a story of, like, growing things, growing herbs in the garden.
8 MINS LATER
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
There was, like, a certain skill set that employers were looking for when they hired her.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
And so there's a sense that, like, if everyone knows the kind of wage value of wet nursing, that breastfeeding was considered work.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
Like, it was care work.
Erin MaglaqueGUEST
It was, like, remunerated.
Bob LeiserNARRATOR
the figures will pile pressure on ministers to deliver on a pledge that was repeatedly made before the election after the s t u c accused employers of fuelling insecurity and demanded that labour delivers its promised employment rights in full without delay or dilution Zero hours contracts allow employers to keep staff on call without guaranteeing paid work, shifting business risk directly onto the employee.
Bob LeiserNARRATOR
In social care, where local authority funding and patient needs fluctuate, companies can use these agreements as a financial buffer.
Bob LeiserNARRATOR
when a care package is reduced the loss is passed straight to the worker whose income can drop instantly with no requirement for notice or severance pay this instability is made worse by fragmented scheduling and short notice cancellations care workers often have visits cancelled mid-shift without pay for their time or travel while having a handful of working hours spread across a 14 hour window prevents them from taking on a second job because refusing last minute requests risks silent firing where managers simply stop offering future shifts Workers are left trapped in hyper-availability without any guaranteed earnings to budget for basic living costs.
Bob LeiserNARRATOR
And Catriona says her dilemma is worsened by last-minute cancellations.
Bob LeiserNARRATOR
She sometimes receives text messages from her employer cancelling an afternoon care visit just 30 minutes before she arrives.
Jennifer CaseGUEST
So it just raised a lot of questions for me and made me reconsider the role that I had to play in that moment of time during the pandemic where I was primarily a mother at home and a teacher, but really a mother at home because my kids were hanging onto my feet even when I was at the computer trying to respond to student emails and think about how I could value that and how that, how motherhood and care work and caring for others, I could view it as something that was part of my climate activism or part of my sense of interconnectedness with the environment rather than as something separate and in conflict with those other values.
Ashley ArnoldHOST
You have been talking about how your writing maybe prior to this and your sort of like connection to the outdoors and environmental writing had this like very spiritual component.
Ashley ArnoldHOST
Do you feel like that was a thread that was easy for you to see and understand as you were working on the CareWork project? Or is that something that took some digging for you to kind of find and figure out?
Jennifer CaseGUEST
It took.
Jennifer CaseGUEST
some digging, but when I found it, it was kind of like, well, of course, I was always there.
Amy WilsonGUEST
So, I mean, I don't have to necessarily clean up my background before a Zoom call, but it doesn't mean that I don't have to try to pretend the rest of my life isn't happening.
Christina GesslerHOST
And the care work still disproportionately falls to women.
Christina GesslerHOST
It
Amy WilsonGUEST
does.
13 MINS LATER
Christina GesslerHOST
Yes, you couldn't keep practicing them and getting better at them.
Christina GesslerHOST
But it wasn't possible in that work environment.
Christina GesslerHOST
And women's care work very often makes it incredibly difficult to have a boundary in that work environment.
Amy WilsonGUEST
I think that's exactly right.
Amy WilsonGUEST
So, I mean, I don't have to necessarily clean up my background before a Zoom call, but it doesn't mean that I don't have to try to pretend the rest of my life isn't happening.
Christina GesslerHOST
And the care work still disproportionately falls to women.
Amy WilsonGUEST
It does.
Amy WilsonGUEST
There was a free time study.
13 MINS LATER
Christina GesslerHOST
You couldn't keep practicing them and getting better at them.
Christina GesslerHOST
But it wasn't possible in that work environment.
Christina GesslerHOST
And women's care work very often makes it incredibly difficult to have a boundary in that work environment.
Amy WilsonGUEST
I think that's exactly right.