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

Kar, Sohini ORCID: 0000-0002-9029-5214 (2023) Domestic values: gendered labor and the uncanniness of critique in marketing life insurance for women. Journal of Cultural Economy. ISSN 1753-0350

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rjce20
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author
Divisions:	International Development
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Date Deposited:	01 Nov 2023 11:24
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2024 16:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/120591

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