Care is not a tally sheet: rethinking the field of gender divisions of domestic labour with care-centric conceptual narratives

This article addresses two puzzles that are at the heart of field gender divisions domestic labour. How is it care concepts seldom appear in a focused on unpaid work? Why does focus rather than relationships and relationalities ? To address these puzzles, I interrogate some conceptual underpinnings field’s dominant theories: social exchange ‘doing gender’. Through weaving Margaret Somers’ historical sociology concept formation Nancy Fraser’s mapping capitalism, reproduction, aim to rethink remake labour through theories, especially feminist ethics economies research. argue – which highlight relationalities, responsiveness responsibilities can radically re-orient how we approach ‘who’ ‘what’ questions this long-standing central ‘who what?’