Other applications of the concept of the
division of labour include:
(3) Gender division of labour– in which spe-
cific jobs are assigned to men or women:
in Western societies nurses tend to be
women, and coalminers men. This ex-
tends beyond paid employment, so that
unwaged domestic labour is largely
performed by women (see gender;
patriarchy).
(4) Cultural division of labour– according to
the theory of internal colonialism (Hech-
ter, 1975), regional minorities bear the
same relationship to the majority as a
colony does to the metropolitan power
undercolonialism. The periphery sup-
plies the core with raw materials and la-
bour, forming a division of labour
between the minority and majority cul-
tures (seecore-periphery model).
The cultural division of labour may be seen as
a special instance of:
(5) Ethnic division of labour– in colonized
and other ethnically divided societies,
employment is frequently stratified
according toethnicity.
(6) International division of labour– charac-
teristically, less-developed countries pro-
duce raw materials and developed
countries produce manufactured goods.
More recently, anew international div-
ision of labourhas involved the devel-
opmentbytransnational corporations
of production facilities in less-developed
countries. Initially, such facilities con-
centrated on routine and lower-skill
manufacturing tasks. Subsequently, tech-
nological advances and the availability of
large numbers of higher-skill (but still
relatively low paid) workers in poorer
countries have seen a major growth in
the outsourcing of business and profes-
sional services to countries such as India.
The international division of labour is a special
case of:
(7) Spatial division of labour – a concept
developed by Massey (1984) involving
the concentration of particular sectors
and/or production tasks in specific geo-
graphical areas.
According to Sayer (1995), the significance
of the division of labour in the organization of
economic activity has been systematically
underestimated. He argues that the complex-
ities of modern industrial economies are such
that they cannot feasibly be centrally planned,
and nor can the social division of labour
be abolished. For Sayer, this means that tradi-
tional Marxist approaches to geographical
change (seemarxism) must be rethought to
recognize that the political challenges posed
by the division of labour would not disappear
with the transition to a post-capitalist society
(see also Sayer and Walker, 1992). jpaSuggested reading
Massey (1995a).domestic labour Work that is done in and
around thehome: activities such as house-
work, food preparation, childcare and the care
of disabled, sick and ageing household and
family members. Domestic labour is the focus
of much feminist scholarship because women
tend to do this work, regardless of whether or
not they have part- or full-time paid employ-
ment. This has implications for the location,
type and hours of many women’s paid employ-
ment, and is an important factor contributing
to the persistence of women’s ghettoization in
‘female-dominated occupations’, and the dis-
parity between men’s and women’s wages
(Hanson and Pratt, 1995: seefeminism;femi-
nist geographies). Whilst many women in
industrialized countries do this ‘double shift’
of domestic labour and paid employment,
some middle-class women hire other women –
typically racialized, working-class women or
migrants from the global South – to do this
work for them (Momsen, 1999; Pratt, 2004).
genderoppression is thus layered on to other
forms of social andgeopoliticaldomination.
In some cases, domestic labour is then
stretched over very great distances, as women
caring for middle-classchildrenin the global
northstrive to mother their own children still
residing in the globalsouth, through daily
or weekly emails and telephone calls
Domestic labour is ambivalently valued
in feminist analyses, viewed simultaneously
as a burden and constraint, and as invaluable
practices of care and social co-operation.
Feminists have developed different strategies
to remedy the unequal gender division of
domestic labour. One strategy is to un-gender
domestic labour, by striving towards equal
contributions by men and women, as well as
more collective options such as socialized
childcare. A second, complementary, approach
is to revalue domestic labour by demonstratingGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_D Final Proof page 170 1.4.2009 3:15pmDOMESTIC LABOUR