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Domestic values: gendered labor and the uncanniness of critique in marketing life insurance for women

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  • Kar, Sohini

Abstract

While term life insurance has historically been sold to income-earning men to secure the financial futures of their families, in India there is a growing number of life insurance products targeting women, particularly unwaged housewives. In marketing these financial products to Indian women, I show how life insurance companies incorporate the feminist critique of devalued domestic labor. Drawing on analysis of insurance policies, marketing and promotional materials, as well as personal advice articles, it goes on to show how there is, something uncanny or unsettling about the way life insurance not only commodifies and financializes domestic labor, but also focuses on the reproductive bodies of women through health riders. The article situates contemporary discourses of life insurance for women within a longer history of women’s property and of mobilizing capital through rather than for women in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Kar, Sohini, 2023. "Domestic values: gendered labor and the uncanniness of critique in marketing life insurance for women," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120591, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:120591
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/120591/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    5. McFall, Liz, 2014. "Devising Consumption: cultural economies of insurance, credit and spending," OSF Preprints at2nv, Center for Open Science.
    6. Forrester, Katrina, 2022. "Feminist Demands and the Problem of Housework," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(4), pages 1278-1292, November.
    7. James, Deborah, 2021. "Life and debt: a view from the south," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106517, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Shaun French & James Kneale, 2012. "Speculating On Careless Lives," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 391-406, June.
    9. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2005. "The New Spirit of Capitalism," Post-Print hal-00678024, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    financialisation; insurance; gender; labour; capitalism; T&F deal;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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