So We Heard: Dana Dives into Commodification and Gendered Labour Practices

Can You Hear Us?

The Can You Hear Us Team is excited to Introduce So We Heard — an informal coffee chat series that, like Can You Hear Us, creates a space for black, indigenous women and femmes of color to discuss and understand anything related to international development without the pressure of having to sound intelligent while doing it.

In the first episode, host Ragini Puri (CYHU Assistant Producer) dives into a chapter from The Critique of Commodification: Contours of a Post-Capitalist Society by Christoph Hermann with CYHU lead researcher, Dana Abuzinadah. They re-examine the notion of commodification, its many critiques, and how it truly operates within our world, paying special attention to the commodification of women’s labour globally.

At the end of the day, commodifying or the process of turning into a valued commodity transcends the boundaries of the labor force and creates this notion of a breadwinner in the household ultimately shaping and reinforcing the idea of a nuclear family. And linking this to women’s development, constraining them to the household or keeping them dependent on a male breadwinner in no way feeds into their development.