The impact of gender studies on law. Social reproduction, unpaid work and care under the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 uncovered a systemic deficit of care that renewed the feminist debate on social reproduction and unpaid gendered work. In contrast to other concepts developed by the feminist critique, the discussion on social reproduction has had a limited impact on law and legal studies. The article examines the reasons for this limited impact and shows how, inter alia, social reproduction processes complicate perspectives on women's unpaid work, externalization of care, informal labour and exploitation. A number of documents on the gendered impact of the pandemic issued by international institutions are used in the article as entry points for discussion and to map out a possible research agenda on social reproduction and law.