Social reproduction and the family: contradictions of childcare and eldercare in Germany

Abstract

At the heart of capitalism is a contradiction between capital’s need for value-producing labor, including the commodification of care work and care products, and capitalists’ pursuit of profit at all costs, including the value of wages and the life and wellbeing of workers. The family is entangled in this contradiction insofar as its members, and particularly its female members, are encouraged to care for their children and for their dependent parents without (adequate) compensation out of love or duty, at the same time as they are immersed in and held up to standards of autonomy and self-care. In this article, I unpack this entanglement with respect to men and women’s care for their children and for their dependent parents in Germany. I argue that family members live out a structural contradiction in the reproduction of capitalism as a personal and family conflict and assume its fallouts as their personal failures. This makes the family relationships that center on care singularly excessive and family members prone to questioning their commitment, sensibility, and competence as mothers and fathers and as daughters and sons.