CUS Bill Gray Lecture Highlights Wages for Housework Movement

“Wages for Housework puts austerity politics in a new light: what politicians call fiscal conservatism or ‘belt-tightening,’ Wages for Housework reframes as freeloading on the unpaid work of women” - Dr. Emily Callaci

In May, the Center for Urban Studies hosted Dr. Emily Callaci as this year's Bill Gray Endowed Lecture Series speaker. Dr. Callaci is the author of Wages for Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise; an intellectual and social history of the global Wages for Housework movement from the 1970s. The book tells the story of six women who were organized around the call for Wages for Housework! Including: Selma James, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Silvia Federici, Wilmette Brown and Marget Prescod. The book invites readers to think about how geopolitics – and the global distribution of wealth –  might be transformed if governments recognized their indebtedness to the unpaid work of women with the same urgency that they recognize their debts to financial institutions? In addition to giving a public talk on her research entitled “Feminism Against Austerity: The Past, Present and Future of Wages for Housework​” Dr. Callaci participated in two community events on the topic as well. 

On her first night in Portland, Dr. Callaci met with members of a small community book club who had read her book in anticipation of her talk. The bookclub included local organizers and advocates working on Multnomah County’s Preschool For All initiative. This initiative, which provides free preschool for three and four year olds living in Multnomah County, carries forward many of the calls and demands of the Wages for Housework movement of the 1970s. Book club participants talked about the connections they felt to the women profiled in the book who called for free state-run and community-run nurseries and preschools. The rich discussion evolved and expanded to explore other ways in which the state and society could recognize and compensate reproductive labor. 

Lastly, Dr. Callaci led an archiving workshop. As a historian, Dr. Callaci has extensive experience working with archival materials – specifically the archival materials made by and about social movements. Struggles for social justice are usually not won in a single generation. Archives can be a vital space for working across generations, connecting with the worldmaking visions of those who came before us, and offering our own work to those who will come after us. The workshop was held at the Portland City Archives, located on campus across the plaza in the same building as the school of social work. Portland City Reference Archivists, Ayshea Khan, gave participants a tour of the stacks and pulled a few selections from their collections that document social movements in Portland. The workshop was well attended, primarily by PSU students and alumni. 

The Bill Gray Speaker Series is generously sponsored by Dr. Bill Gray, who obtained his PhD at PSU in 1984 and later became the first Chancellor of Washington State. Speakers are nominated with a concerted effort made to invite scholars from underrepresented groups who do inspiring work.