It is not love, but social reproduction labor: nursing care in light of Nancy Fraser

Abstract

ABSTRACT This is a theoretical study that adopts Nancy Fraser’s conception of care as social reproduction labor as a critique of the scientific self-discourse that defines care as “love” in nursing. We argue that care as social reproduction labor–purposeful labor aimed at meeting the social needs of the labor force in capitalist societies–reveals the weaknesses of the notion of “love” in nursing by exposing the material, intersectional, capitalist, and sociohistorical conditions that sustain it, thereby supporting counter-hegemonic practices. First, we reflect on the contradiction between care and capitalism. Subsequently, we undertake an immanent critique of the nursing self-discourse of love through the negative trihedron of care. Finally, we recalculate alternatives for a critical pathway regarding care work in the profession. We propose incorporating a gender perspective and dialogue with feminist epistemology into undergraduate and graduate curricula, with repercussions for scientific production and the political practice of nursing. The science we produce should problematize the social and gender contradictions within nursing, whose labor has been rigidly domesticated.