Care Work Theory inspired my exhibition
In the process of planning an exhibition about women’s invisible labor in the family, Care Work Theory provided me with important theoretical support, enabling me to have a deeper understanding of the complexity of housework at the social, economic, and emotional levels.
First, Paula England pointed out in summarizing the multiple theoretical frameworks of care labor: “the ‘devaluation’ perspective argues that care work is badly rewarded because care is associated with women, and often women of color” (England 2005, 381). This view made me rethink the social status of invisible labor in the family: precisely because these labors are closely tied to women’s identity, they are systematically devalued and ignored. Therefore, in the exhibition, I hope to let the audience intuitively feel this structural devaluation through artwork, and question the unequal relationship between labor value and gender identity.
Judith Wuest proposed in her research that women often fall into a dynamic state called “precarious ordering” in care work, that is, maintaining a fragile order between constantly changing and competing care needs (Wuest 2001, 168). This theory prompted me to think about the narrative structure of the exhibition, not only to show the repetitiveness of labor, but also to reflect how women constantly negotiate, adjust, and self-repair between social, family, and personal desires. This sense of fluidity and vulnerability will be expressed through the spatial layout of the work and the audience’s path.
In addition, the research of Linda McDowell et al. emphasizes that women’s choices between paid labor and unpaid care labor are often deeply influenced by moral responsibilities and social norms: “women’s decisions about their multiple responsibilities are taken within a nexus of relational ties that both differentiate and bind social groups” (McDowell et al. 2005, 223). This made me realize that even under the surface of seemingly free choice, women still face heavy and hidden moral pressures between family labor and career development. Therefore, I hope that the exhibition can reveal these naturalized and internalized social expectations and encourage the audience to question the “naturalness” of the distribution of labor responsibilities within the family.
References
England, Paula. 2005. “Emerging Theories of Care Work.” Annual Review of Sociology 31: 381–99. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.31.041304.122317.
Wuest, Judith. 2001. “Precarious Ordering: Toward a Formal Theory of Women’s Caring.” Health Care for Women International 22 (1–2): 167–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/073993301300003144.
McDowell, Linda, Kathryn Ray, Diane Perrons, Colette Fagan, and Kevin Ward. 2005. “Women’s Paid Work and Moral Economies of Care.” Social & Cultural Geography 6 (2): 219–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360500074642.
