[Jenny Brown] Women: Labor Pains

In 2018, the birth rate in the United States reached its lowest level in decades. This alarmed the patriarchal class that wants to control women’s bodies. Reproductive rights and access to abortion are under sustained political attack. Roe v. Wade is under threat. What role does misogyny play in gender relations? Feminist activists assert that declining birth rates represent a work slowdown, or strike, in the face of the poor conditions for those who do the work of bearing and raising children and the accompanying financial stress. The U.S. economy relies on the unpaid labor of millions of often overworked and exhausted women. What happens when they organize and say, “No More”? Unpaid work, particularly bearing and rearing children must be paid for. Jenny Brown says, “When it comes to compensating for the labor of having kids, the U.S. is truly at the bottom.” Recorded at the University of California.