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A SPINIFEX FEMINIST CLASSIC

It is my thesis that this general production of life, or subsistence production – mainly performed through the non-wage labour of women and other non-wage labourers as slaves, contract workers and peasants in the colonies – constitutes the perennial basis upon which capitalist productive labour can be built up and exploited. This now classic book traces the social origins of the sexual division of labour. It gives a history of the related processes of colonisation and housewifisation‚ and extends this analysis to the contemporary new international division of labour and the role which women have to play as the cheapest producers and consumers. First published in 1986, it was hailed as a major paradigm shift for feminist theory. Nearly two decades on, Maria Mies’ theory of capitalist patriarchy has become even more relevant; this new edition includes a substantial new introduction in which she both applies her theory to the new, globalized world and answers her critics.