Emotional capital in the era of feminization of work: a critical reading of Eva Illouz through Cristina Morini

Abstract

By using the concept of «emotional capital» Eva Illouz seeks to explore the idea that, in contemporary capitalism, certain social groups can obtain economic and other forms of advantage due to their affective and interpersonal skills. The author analyses this phenomenon within the framework of her studies on emotional capitalism, which she traces back to the early 20th century and interprets as a process whereby the emotional habitus traditionally associated with women is transferred to the sphere of waged labour. As this paper aims to demonstrate, it is problematic to deduce from these premises that women are the main beneficiaries of the labour transformations brought about by emotional capitalism, as well as to assume a static conception of the very category of «women».

Drawing on the analyses of Cristina Morini and other theorists of so-called «biocapitalism», it will be argued that the feminization of labour is now inseparable from the generalized precarization that permeates productive circuits and that also affects subjects positioned as «men» within the sexual division of labour in contemporary capitalism.