By Lyn Ossome

In this session titled “What is Social Reproduction?”, Prof Ossome explained the importance of understanding social reproduction in an agrarian context. Social reproduction involves the inculcation of a system that ensures the reproduction of patriarchy. It is sustained by care work, which is almost exclusively performed by women, making it deeply gendered. Feminists have appropriated the tools and methods of political economy to highlight the hidden connections between household structures, women’s positions, and the reproductive labour required for sustaining capitalism.


Prof. Ossome is an Associate Professor and Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), and has previously held the posts of Associate Professor of Political Studies at Wits University, Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research and Senior Research Associate at University of Johannesburg. She is an editorial board member of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy and has served on the executive committee for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and on the board of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE). She has published and taught extensively on the question of social reproduction, with particular attention to social reproduction and labour in agrarian contexts.