ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the central categories of a feminist analysis of capitalism: work, social reproduction and care. Feminist economists criticise an understanding of economics that focuses one-sidedly on market processes, the monetised economy and profit maximisation. The chapter discusses ecofeminism and queer ecologies in relation to Feminist Political Ecology, looking at the analytical debates around capitalism and re/productivity. At the heart of ecofeminist analysis is the idea that in capitalism, the re/productivity of the female body and the labour of women in social reproduction is exploited and appropriated by society as though they were themselves natural resources. Queer Ecologies unravel the knot of desire, heterosexual reproduction and the symbolic order of the gender binary. The reproductivity of women’s bodies and the social and cultural construction of gender allot responsibility for care work to women. In ecofeminist analysis, both nature and women’s work count as material prerequisites for the capitalist process of exploitation and appropriation.
