Christine Delphy indicates the existence of a patriarchal production mode, which operates in parallel to capitalism, transferring women's surplus labor to their husbands. She notes two phenomena in particular: (1) permanence of a good amount of work done within the domestic sphere, but directed to the market, especially in rural areas, when women's production is appropriated by men; (2) incoherence of judging that the output generated for self-consumption does not create value. Thus, women effectively constitute both a group subjected to certain production relations, i. e, a class, and a class of human beings intended by birth to enter that class, i. e., a caste. The article also discusses the differences between the position of a wife, whose services are paid not according to volume or skill level demanded by the work, but with the husband's possessions and good will and waged work.
women; work; classes; production relations; capitalism; patriarchy