The Wages for Housework campaign
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2022
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They called it "The only work you never retire from, the only work you never get paid for" and in 1972 the Italian Marxist Feminist group Lotta Feminista tried to change that. Inspired by the work of feminist theorist Mariarosa Dalla Costa, they launched an international campaign for women to be paid for housework. The movement argued that if home-making stopped, our entire economic system would grind to a halt. Claire Bowes speaks to one of the leaders of Wages for Housework, Leopoldina Fortunati, about their revolutionary campaign and how its roots go back as far as the 19th century.
PHOTO: Wages for Housework leaders Mariarosa Dalla Costa (left) and Leopoldina Fortunati (centre) at a rally in the 1970s.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. Hello and thanks for downloading Witness History with me Claire Bowes from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:47.0 | All this week we're marking International Women's Day by bringing you stories of women who've made their mark on history. |
| 0:55.0 | Today I'm going back to Italy 50 years ago when feminists launched an international campaign |
| 1:01.7 | for wages for housework. |
| 1:04.4 | I've been speaking to one of the Italian campaigners |
| 1:07.1 | about the ideas which they thought would change the relationships |
| 1:11.0 | between men and women for the better. |
| 1:13.0 | Siamo stupe |
| 1:15.0 | and far a bambini |
| 1:18.0 | the da da. |
| 1:19.0 | I pia, |
| 1:20.0 | and styade panolini |
| 1:22.0 | Siamo Stoufe, we're tired of producing babies, washing the dishes and changing nappies. |
| 1:29.8 | That sounds familiar, the endless list. But in the early 1970s it became a war cry for feminists like |
| 1:36.5 | Leopoldina Fortunati. This work was invisible. Society was running completely and aware of what women were doing at home. |
| 1:50.7 | So the first thing was to make this work visible publicly and visible appreciate |
... |
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