The patriarchy of accumulation: homework, fieldwork and the production-reproduction nexus in rural Indonesia

This article argues that patriarchy expands capitalist accumulation by increasing surplus labour-time, lowering production costs, and dividing controlling workers. Consequently, increases profits, manages intra-capitalist competition, impedes labour’s capacity to organise. Analysing how it does so can inform counter-strategies. Based on fieldwork in two West Java villages, the analyses four forms of patriarchal accumulation: (i) reproductive labour underpinned ideology housewifeization; (ii) gendered cheap foodgrains; (iii) street-food reduces reproduction time costs; (iv) extension labour-time through low-waged homework squeezed into rhythms labour.