'It is my thesis that this general production of life or subsistence production - mainly
performed through the non-wage labour of women and other non-wage labourers as slaves contract
workers and peasants in the colonies - constitutes the perennial basis upon which capitalist
productive labour can be built up and exploited.' First published in 1986 Maria Mies's
progressive book was hailed as a major paradigm shift for feminist theory and it remains a
major contribution to development theory and practice today. Tracing the social origins of the
sexual division of labour it offers a history of the related processes of colonization and
'housewifization' and extends this analysis to the contemporary new international division of
labour. Mies's theory of capitalist patriarchy has become even more relevant today. This new
edition includes a substantial new introduction in which she both applies her theory to the new
globalized world and answers her critics.
