Social Reproduction in a modern Kenyan market: gendered labour and relief through the socialisation of childcare

Hovering over a large corpus of social reproduction theory is the question of how unpaid care and domestic work should be visibilised and valued. Early social reproduction theorist Alisa Del Re conceived of childcare provision both as a form of direct relief from the endless drudgery of waged and unwaged work and as a necessary precondition for women’s autonomy. More recently, reflecting on the care economies of contemporary Africa, Akosua Darwah conveys a strikingly similar argument: childcare reduces the hours spent on unpaid childcare while offering women the choice to join the workforce. Kenya provides a unique vantage point to re-engage with the question of social services, particularly childcare, within contemporary debates on social reproduction and surplus populations. Abetted by international philanthropic foundations, international organisations, county governments, and feminist NGOs, the country is taking steps towards the socialisation of care by installing affordable childcare facilities in major markets nationwide. Homing in on the question of what childcare does to gendered labour and gender relations, this paper presents the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in and around a childcare facility located within the largest modern market in East Africa. In a context of acute time poverty, Del Re’s notion of relief, both material and psychological, resonates strongly with our findings. At the same time, the stallholders and users we interviewed, were not primarily concerned with autonomy but held steadfast to the idea that childcare should endow children with the human capital to escape poverty and criminality.