Social reproduction and care workers in Ukraine in the times of austerity and war: construction of disposability and exploitation of love

This article examines public care labour in Ukraine in the context of war and neoliberal austerity, using empirical research conducted by the authors over the past five years in childcare, nursing care, elderly care, visiting care, and social work. Building on Marxist feminist theories of social reproduction, we explore the link between care labor disposability and gendered affections embedded in care. We show how existing policies have devalued care labor and constructed it as disposable, eroding workers’ well-being. Despite the labour shortages they created, many women continue to work in public care under degrading and sometimes dangerous conditions. They do so partly for structural reasons, but also out of love, devotion, and responsibility that sustain the public care system under severe strain. Finally, we show that while these affective commitments can be exploited to contain labour despite devaluation, they also hold the potential to mobilise workers’ collective struggles around social reproduction.