Dissatisfied with identity-based politics, many activists and intellectuals are now seeking larger paradigms that can unify disparate struggles. Aiming to advance that project, I propose that labor forms the hidden link between gender, race, and class. My inspiration is W.E.B. Du Bois’s claim, in Black Reconstruction, that nineteenth century America had two labor movements, anti-slavery and trade unionism, which tragically failed to unite. Extending this idea to the present, I expand it by adding a third. Construing feminism, too, as a labor movement, focused on the work of care, I argue that that capitalist society relies on three distinct types of labor: exploited, expropriated, and domesticated. Their structural entwinement, I maintain, constitutes the inner, systemic ties between gender, race, and class.

Nancy Fraser intended to deliver this lecture in May as the Albertus Magnus Professor at the University of Cologne. The university abruptly disinvited her in April for signing a pro-Palestinian solidarity letter. Read more in Prof. Fraser's Jacobin interview.

Nancy Fraser is Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research and a member of the Editorial Committee of New Left Review. Trained as a philosopher, she specializes in critical social theory and political philosophy. Widely known for her work on the relation between redistribution and recognition in the theory of justice, she works now on the relation of capitalism to racial oppression, social reproduction, ecological crisis, feminist movements, and the rise of rightwing populism.

Fraser’s newest book is Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care and the Planet–and what we can do about it (Verso, 2022). Other recent books include Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto, co-authored with Cinzia Arruzza and Tithi Bhattacharya (Verso, 2019); The Old is Dying (Verso, 2019); and Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory, co-authored with Rahel Jaeggi (Polity Press, 2018).

Fraser’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages and was cited three times by the Justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court–in opinions upholding marriage equality, affirmative action, and Afro-descendant collective land rights. A Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a past President of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, she is the recipient of six honorary degrees, the Alfred Schutz Prize for Social Philosophy, the Nessim Habif World Prize, and the Nonino Prize 2022 “Master of our Time.”