Reproductive Labor and Innovation

This week’s review makes a case against the “fetishization of innovation and entrepreneurship,” arguing that it debases reproductive labor and harms society writ large.

Posted on September 1, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

Reproductive Labor and Innovation: Against the Tech Fix in an Era of Hype

Denbow, Jennifer. Duke, 2024
240p bibl index, 9781478030997 $102.95, 9781478026785 $26.95, 9781478060024

Denbow (political science, California Polytechnic State Univ.) offers a neoliberal feminist analysis of reproductive labor that is in direct opposition to the current fetishization of innovation and entrepreneurship. Her analysis is literally grounded: she uses the position and status of her campus office relative to that of the innovation center as a concrete example. She compares the prioritization of care work to the glorification of commercial solutions to problems. This approach elucidates how many aspects of American culture, especially the education system, have shifted from seeking the collective good to idealizing not just individualism but the model of technocratic entrepreneurship that fosters an ecosystem where ideas compete for support based on the likelihood of being profitable rather than on their merit. She demonstrates very effectively that “the overvaluation of technology has come to eclipse the value of reproductive labor” in a way that is detrimental to individual physical and mental well-being and the well-being of society. Specific examples of how “innovative” technology, such as prenatal tests, can in fact reduce the quality of life for all parties, except those who profit from them, support her points. Notes are comprehensive, as is the index.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.
Reviewer: E. Bertozzi, Quinnipiac University
Interdisciplinary Subject: Women’s & Gender Studies
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Business, Management & Labor
Choice Issue: Sep 2025

Reproductive Labor and Innovation

This week’s review makes a case against the “fetishization of innovation and entrepreneurship,” arguing that it debases reproductive labor and harms society writ large.