Description
Who undertakes the grunt work of sustaining rebellions? Despite emerging literature on the role of women in armed groups and rebellions, there is little scholarship and understanding of the gendered divisions of labour, particularly of social reproductive labour, within these organizations. This research paper unravels the role of social reproduction, specifically of care and domestic labour, for revolutionary struggles to \textit{maintain} itself within epochs of strife. Using a novel dataset and typology, it provides a foundation on the invisible underbelly of labour that is necessary for armed organizations to pursue their ideological goals. At the same time, theoretical cleavages arise on the limitations of peacetime social reproduction theory while exploring \textit{what it means to take care of each other} within contexts of protracted violence. Thus, what is the relationship between care and fighting for freedom? I argue that traditionally `women's work' taking place in armed rebellions must be conceptualised beyond mere survival but as pivotal for rebel viability through enacting affect and emotional labour in the pursuit of interpersonal social cohesion. In other words, rebellions rely on the (im)material affect of social reproductive labour, largely undertaken by women and those with lower social status, to continue their ideological pursuits.
