Maria Mies: Difference between revisions

| image = Maria Mies portrait photo.png

| caption = Mies in 2021

| organisation = [[FachhochschuleFrauenforum Köln, [[Attac]]

'''Maria Mies''' (6 February 1931 – 15 May 2023) was a German professor of sociology, a [[Marxist feminism|Marxist feminist]], an activist for women's rights, and an author. She came from a rural background in the [[Volcanic Eifel]], and initially trained to be a teacher. After working for several years as a primary school teacher and qualifying as a secondaryhigh school instructor, she applied to the [[Goethe-Institut|Goethe Institute]], hoping to work in Africa or Asia. Assigned to a school in [[Pune]], India, she discovered that while her male students took German courses to further their education, women for the most part took her classes to avoid marriage. Returning to study at the [[University of Cologne]], she prepared her dissertation about contradictions of social expectations for women in India in 1971, earning her PhD the following year.

Returning to Germany and the University of Applied Sciences in 1981, Mies became involved in the [[Ecofeminism|ecofeminist movement]] and in activism against [[genetic engineering]] and [[reproductive technology]]. She coined the phrase "housewifisation" for the processes that occurred to devalue women's labour and make it invisible. From the 1980s, she wrote extensively about the [[Intersectionality|intersection]] between [[capitalism]], [[patriarchy]] and [[colonialism]]. Mies was one of the first scholars to recognise the similarities between the socio-politico-economic positions held by women and colonised people. Her works theorised that women and colonised people's labour was devalued and exploited under capitalism, and studied the links between women's struggles for liberation and their broader struggles for social and [[environmental justice]]. One of her main concerns was the development of an alternative, feminist and [[Decoloniality|decolonial]] approach in methodology and in economics. Her pioneering work, which included writing textbooks on the history of women's movements, has garnered international analysis and been translated into several languages.

Mies was born in [[Hillesheim, Rhineland-Palatinate|Hillesheim]], Germany, on 6 February 1931 to Johann and Gertrud Mies.<ref name="Bauer">{{cite web |last=Schuster |first=Stefan |title=Maria Mies |url=https://www.fritz-bauer-forum.de/datenbank/maria-mies/ |access-date=17 May 2023 |website=fritz-bauer-forum.de |publisher=Buxus Stiftung |date=2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308090021/https://www.fritz-bauer-forum.de/datenbank/maria-mies/ |archive-date=8 March 2023 |location=Bochum, Germany |language=de |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Franken">{{cite web |last=Franken |first=Irene |title=Maria Mies |url=https://www.frauengeschichtsverein.de/start-und-news/frau-des-monats-2021/februar-2021/ |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=frauengeschichtsverein.de |publisher=Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein e.V. |date=2021 |location=Cologne, Germany |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516163104/https://www.frauengeschichtsverein.de/start-und-news/frau-des-monats-2021/februar-2021/ |archive-date=16 May 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> She came from a rural background, growing up in a family of farmers in [[Steffeln|Auel]], a village in the [[Vulkaneifel]] region<ref name="Bauer" /> of Prussia,the Prussian Rhine Province (now in [[Rhineland-Palatinate]]).<ref name="Bauer"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lutz |first1=Herbert |last2=Lorenz |first2=Volker |title=Early Volcanological Research in the Vulkaneifel, Germany, the Classic Region of Maar–Diatreme Volcanoes: The Years 1774–1865 |journal=[[Bulletin of Volcanology]] |date=August 2013 |volume=75 |issue=8 |pages=743–758 |doi=10.1007/s00445-013-0743-0 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00445-013-0743-0 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] for the [[International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior]] |location=Berlin, Germany |issn=0258-8900 |oclc=5659170779|doi-access=free |bibcode=2013BVol...75..743L }}</ref>{{rp|747}} She was the seventh of twelve children,<ref name="Franken" /> who all worked in the fields while they were pupils at the local school with only one classroom. Her mother's temperament was optimistic, but her father was a patriarchal figure and caused fear for the family members with his anger. They were raised as Catholic.<ref name="Bauer" /> She was the first student from her village to complete secondary school,<ref name="Franken" /><ref name="Spiegel" /> which she attended in [[Gerolstein]], while boarding with a family friend. She then started at the Regino-Gymnasium in [[Prüm]], but the school was closed in September 1944 because of the [[World War II|war]].<ref name="Bauer" />

===Early (1963-1977)1963–1977===

The late 1960s and early 1970s was a period of global protest and Mies became involved in activism. She participated in protests against the [[Vietnam War]] and [[Anti-nuclear movement|nuclear armaments]] in the annual [[Peace movement|pacifist]] {{ill|Easter March|de|Ostermarsch}}.<ref name="Bauer" /> She joined {{lang|de|Frauenforum Köln|italics=no}} (Women's Forum Cologne), a local women's group tied to the [[Women's liberation movement in Europe|women's liberation movement]], which protested [[patriarchy|patriarchal structures]] and the devaluation of women.<ref name="Franken" /> She participated in the {{ill|Politisches Nachtgebet|de|lt=Politische Nachtgebete}} (political night-prayers), organizedorganised by [[Dorothee Sölle]], which were aimed at questioning the status of women in the church. As she became more involved in protest and women's lack of equality, Mies became critical of religion and left the Catholic church. She taught at the newly founded [[Cologne University of Applied Sciences]],<ref name="Bauer" /> before accepting a post in 1974 to teach at the [[University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research]]. For three years, she presented seminars on the [[First-wave feminism|historic international women's movement]], hoping she could convince the university to establish a women's study chair. In 1975, she attended the [[World Conference on Women, 1975|World Conference on Women]] in [[Mexico City]] and realised how little was known about women's history.<ref name="Franken" /> In 1976, she married Sarkar, with the intent of having a [[Matrilocal residence|visiting marriage]] allowing each to continue their careers in their respective countries.<ref name="Bauer" /> That year, she joined with other activists, mainly students of her classes, to found the [[women's shelter]] (''Frauenhaus'') in Cologne, one of the first of its kind in Germany.<ref name="Spiegel" /><ref name="Mengel">{{cite news |last=Mengel |first=Monika |title=Erlebte Geschichten mit Maria Mies |url=https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/erlebtegeschichten/miesmaria102.html |access-date=19 May 2023 |work=[[Westdeutscher Rundfunk|WDR]] |date=31 December 2006 |language=de |trans-title=Stories Experienced with Maria Mies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519141132/https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/erlebtegeschichten/miesmaria102.html |archive-date=19 May 2023 |location=Cologne, Germany |url-status=live}}</ref> Mies lectured at the shelter, teaching women practical and political ways to combat [[Violence against women|violence]]. She returned to the University of Applied Sciences in 1977,<ref name="Franken" /> but decided to conduct a research project in India the following year.<ref name="Bauer" />

===Later (1978-2001)1978–2001===

Mies arrived in India in 1978 to analyze rural subsistence production, meaning how domestic and farm labour, as well as cottage industry, allowed families to survive, but also led to the expansion of wealth for landlords and industries. She remained in India to the end of 1979 and spent time with her former pupil, Sarkar, who at the time was a lecturer at the Goethe Institute in [[Hyderabad]]. The results of her study of rural industry were published as ''The Lacemakers of Narsapur: Indian Housewives Produce for the World Market'' in 1982. She returned to Europe after accepting a position at the [[International Institute of Social Studies]] in [[The Hague]]. There, she created a [[master's degree]] programme for women from [[Developing country|developing countries]]. To enable her students to complete the [[Practicum|practical requirements]], Mies made contact with local feminist groups to develop joint projects they could carry out.<ref name="Bauer" /> The administration decided not to renew the "Women and Development" programme for the next semester but Mies and her students successfully protested and the course continued to be offered.<ref name="Bauer" /> Because no textbooks at that time existed on the history of women's movements, particularly for the Global South, Mies and [[Kumari Jayawardena]], a political scientist at the [[University of Colombo]], wrote a series of texts for their students to use. Launching an international research project, she worked with scholars [[Mia Berden]], [[Rhoda Reddock]], and [[Saskia Wieringa]] to create a historiography of women's movements for Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America with help from academics and activists from those countries.<ref name="Dubel">{{cite web |last1=Dubel |first1=Ireen |title=Passing Away: Emeritus Professor Maria Mies |url=https://www.iss.nl/en/news/passing-away-emeritus-professor-maria-mies |website=IISS News |publisher=[[International Institute of Social Studies]] |access-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524045353/https://www.iss.nl/en/news/passing-away-emeritus-professor-maria-mies |archive-date=24 May 2023 |location=The Hague, Netherlands |date=22 May 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The programme was based on ideas she had first developed about women's studies and feminist scholarship in a 1977 paper "Towards a Methodology for Feminist Research" delivered at a conference in Frankfurt.<ref name="Schmitz" >{{cite journal |last1=Schmitz |first1=Betty |title=Reviewed Work: Theories of Women's Studies by Gloria Bowles, Renate Duelli Klein |journal=[[The Journal of Higher Education]] |date=January–February 1985 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=101–103 |doi=10.2307/1981725 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1981725 |access-date=20 May 2023 |publisher=[[Ohio State University Press]] |location=Columbus, Ohio |jstor=1981725 |issn=0022-1546 |oclc=8142350210}}</ref>{{rp|102}} To combat what she saw as a disconnect between theory and practical application in the academic setting, Mies aimed to rewrite existing teaching methods.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yeager |first1=Matthew G. |title=The Freedom of Information Act as a Methodological Tool: Suing the Government for Data |journal=Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice |date=July 2006 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=499–521 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_canadian-journal-of-criminology-and-criminal-justice_2006-07_48_4/page/511/mode/1up |access-date=20 May 2023 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Tornoto, Ontario |doi=10.3138/cjccj.48.4.499 |issn=1707-7753 |oclc=361889328}}</ref>{{rp|511}} She did not believe that feminist research could use existing research models and proposed instead seven steps to completely re-imagine research with usefulness and respect for the subject in mind.<ref name="Schmitz" />{{rp|102}} These steps included a rejection of both quantitative methods and extrapolation of studies on men to apply to women's experiences.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Westmarland |first1=Nicole |title=The Quantitative/Qualitative Debate and Feminist Research: A Subjective View of Objectivity |journal=Forum: Qualitative Social Research |date=February 2001 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.17169/fqs-2.1.974 |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0101135 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=Institut für Sozialwissenschaften Otto-von-Guericke-Universität |location=Berlin, Germany |issn=1438-5627 |oclc=7179505508}}</ref>{{rp|1–2}} She argued that research should be participatory,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chaudhuri |first1=Ritu Sen |editor1-last=Ghosh |editor1-first=Ghosh |title=Methodology of Research in Sociology |url=https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/socp3/ |date=2018 |publisher=[[INFLIBNET Centre]] |location=Gandhinagar, India |chapter=28 Feminist Methodology in Sociological Research |chapter-url=https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/socp3/chapter/feminist-methodology-in-sociological-research/ |id=Search term "participatory"}}</ref> meaning that the researcher and the subject should collaborate in the processes and goals of the study, which should aim at empowering women and dismantling patriarchal systems.<ref name="Sprague & Zimmerman">{{cite journal |last1=Sprague |first1=Joey |last2=Zimmerman |first2=Mary K. |title=Quality and Quantity: Reconstructing Feminist Methodology |journal=[[The American Sociologist]] |date=March 1989 |volume=20 |pages=71–86 |doi=10.1007/BF02697788 |publisher=[[American Sociological Association]] |location=Albany, New York |issn=0003-1232 |oclc=5656565707}}{{subscription neededrequired|via=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer Link]]}}</ref>{{rp|77}} The paper was later published as a chapter of the book ''Theories of Women's Studies'' (1983),<ref name="Schmitz" />{{rp|102}} and praised for its methodological innovations and theoretical advancements.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Griffith |first1=Alison I. |title=Reviewed Work: Theories of Women's Studies by Gloria Bowles, Renate Duelli Klein |journal=[[Canadian Journal of Sociology]] |date=Autumn 1986 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=311–314 |doi=10.2307/3341107 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3341107 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto, Ontario |jstor=3341107 |issn=0318-6431 |oclc=5546268950}}</ref>{{rp|313}}<ref name="Barnes">{{cite journal |last1=Barnes |first1=Nancy |title=Reviewed Works: Feminist Frontiers: Rethinking Sex, Gender, and Society by Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor; Theories of Women's Studies by Gloria Bowles, Renate Duelli-Klein |journal=[[Signs (journal)|Signs]] |date=Spring 1985 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=579–581 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174269 |access-date=1 July 2023 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago, Illinois |doi=10.1086/494163 |jstor=3174269 |issn=0097-9740 |oclc=5548306869}}</ref>{{rp|581}} Scholar Nancy Barnes, stated that Mies's article was so compelling that "it alone makes the book worth buying", but noted that the chapter did not resolve the question of whether women's studies should be a stand-alone field, or integrated into other fields.<ref name="Barnes" />{{rp|581}}

In 1981, Mies decided to return to Cologne and the University of Applied Sciences and Sarkar, her husband, joined her there permanently in 1982. She became involved in the [[Ecofeminism|ecofeminist movement]], as well as in activism against [[genetic engineering]] and [[reproductive technology]], which she saw as an expropriation of a woman's right to give birth and a commercialization of human production. She was one of the founders of the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering.<ref name="Bauer" /> Within this organization and in her works, she argued that women from the Global North were urged to use invasive technologies such as [[In vitro fertilisation|assisted fertilisation]] and [[surrogacy]] to increase their child-bearing, while women in the [[Global South]] were pressed to limit births to control population growth.<ref name="Bauer" /><ref name="Sandilands" >{{cite journal |last1=Sandilands |first1=Catriona |title=Reviewed Work: Ecofeminism by Maria Mies, Vandana Shiva |journal=[[Economic Geography (journal)|Economic Geography]] |date=January 1996 |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=96–99 |doi=10.2307/144510 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/144510 |access-date=20 May 2023 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |location=New York, New York |jstor=144510 |issn=0013-0095 |oclc=5548541985}}</ref>{{rp|97}} Mies also pointed out that to exercise [[Bodily integrity|decisions about their bodies]], women are limited by systems designed, controlled, and administered by health providers and government officials.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kato |first1=Yutaka |title=Reproductive Technology: What Is the Impact of Fertility Treatment and Regenerative Medicine on Society? by Azumi Tsuge (review) |journal=East Asian Science, Technology and Society |date=2015 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=91–94 |doi=10.1215/18752160-2835763 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/577039/pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |location=Durham, North Carolina |s2cid=75669458 |issn=1875-2160 |oclc=5795963720}}</ref>{{rp|93}} She became more active in pacifist activities, participating in a resistance camp [[NATO Double-Track Decision#Protests|protesting]] against a [[NATO]] plan to station nuclear warheads in Germany in 1983. Her pacifism was reinforced by her opposition to the idea put forth by [[Alice Schwarzer]] that women could gain emancipation if they had the same violent means which were available to men. Opposed to war, Mies could not reconcile that simple equality with men would overcome hierarchical systems that devalued women.<ref name="Bauer" /> Having retired from teaching in 1993, she continued to be active in women's and other social movements.<ref name="Spiegel" /> She was a founding member of [[Attac]], formed in 1999, and organizedorganised feministAttac, in 2001 at the association's congress, held that year in Berlin.<ref name="Spiegel" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Wir haben eine aufrichtige Mitstreiterin verloren |url=https://www.attac.de/neuigkeiten/detailansicht/news/mariamies |website=Attac Deutschland |publisher=Attac Trägerverein e.V. |access-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523104520/https://www.attac.de/neuigkeiten/detailansicht/news/mariamies |archive-date=23 May 2023 |location=Frankfurt am Main, Germany |language=German |trans-title=We've Lost a Genuine Comrade-in-Arms |date=22 May 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Mies's earliest works such as ''Indian Women in Patriarchy'' (1980) and ''The Lace Makers of Narsapur'' (1982), which evaluated her years in India, andas inwell as later works like "Sexist and Racist Implications of New Reproductive Technology" (''Alternatives'', 1987) critiqued policies aimed at maintaining an asymmetricaluneven, hierarchicstratified societal structure which fosteredencouraged domination and exploitation.<ref name="Léveillé" >{{cite journal |last1=Léveillé |first1=Danielle |title=Comptes Rendus: Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Women in the International Division of Labour. Zed Books Ltd, Third World Books, New Jersey, 1986, 251 pages. |journal=Recherches Féministes |date=1988 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=149–152 |doi=10.7202/057523ar |url=https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/rf/1988-v1-n2-rf1638/057523ar/ |access-date=20 May 2023 |trans-title=Proceedings: Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Women in the International Division of Labour. Zed Books Ltd, Third World Books, New Jersey, 1986, 251 pages. |publisher=[[Université Laval]] |location=Quebec City, Quebec |language=French |issn=0838-4479|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806021405/https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/rf/1988-v1-n2-rf1638/057523ar/ |archive-date=6 August 2022 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|149}} She sought to evaluate how women's labour became hidden and how the perception that women were reliant upon a husband's income emerged. She theorised that by eliminating pay for the work women performed, making them available at all times for labour, alienating them from society by keeping them in the home, giving them no job security, and eliminating their ability to contract or [[Trade union|unionise]], women lost [[Agency (sociology)|agency]]. TheirShe "housewifisation"named the process which prevented women from being seen as producers or self-employed individuals, resultingand resulted in their exploitation, "housewifisation".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Teixeira |first1=Mylene N. |last2=Strazzeri |first2=Victor |title=Tradução do Verbete: Hausfrauisierung (H). Frigga Haug. Historisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch des Marxismus, HKWM Band 5. Berlin 2001, 1209–1215. |journal=Revista Estudos Feministas |date=2001 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1590/1806-9584-2018v26n256412 |url=http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ref/v26n2/1806-9584-ref-26-02-e56412.pdf |access-date=20 May 2023 |trans-title=Translation Entry: Housewifisation (H). Frigga Haug. Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism, HKWM Volume 5. Berlin 2001, 1209–1215. |publisher=Instituto de Estudos de Genero, [[Federal University of Santa Catarina|Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina]] |location=Florianópolis, Brazil |s2cid=150292239 |language=Portuguese |issn=0104-026X}}</ref>{{Rp|2}} The anthropologist Danielle Léveillé characterised Mies's works as both "masterful" and "astonishing" in that she was able to link variables from the [[Decolonization|anti-colonial]], [[Anti-racism|anti-racist]], ecology, feminist, and [[Nonviolence|non-violence]] movements to critique policies that established power relationships in society.<ref name="Léveillé" />{{rp|149}} Political scientist {{ill|Elisabeth Prügl|wikidata|Q58195777}} pointed to Mies's connection of the threads in society that united women, colonized people, and nature as being free for exploitation. The unpaid labour of the former was easily equated to the free availability of air and water.<ref name=Prügl>{{cite journal |last1=Prügl |first1=Elisabeth |title=Home-Based Workers: A Comparative Exploration of Mies's Theory of Housewifization |journal=[[Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies]] |date=January 1996 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=114–135 |doi=10.2307/3346904 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346904 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |jstor=3346904 |issn=0160-9009 |oclc=5546263196}}</ref>{{rp|115}} Prügl tested Mies's theory that housewives were superexploited and confirmed that they were with data from the [[International Labour Organization]], as they universally earned less than the legal minimum wage.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|116}} However, in looking at homemakers in Brazil, Britain, Pakistan, Thailand, and Turkey, while Prügl confirmed that housewives were typically viewed as non-workers,<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|129}} she found that there was not a universal acceptance by women, or their various societies of the cultural and political meaning of housewifery and its value.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|129-130}} She concluded that because of the "multiple contextual meanings" of housewife, exploitation more likely resulted from the political, rather than economic, spread of capitalism,<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|130}} and questioned whether housewifisation as an underpinning of capitalism failed to evaluate whether exploitation was instead related to global patriarchy.<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|116}}

''Ecofeminism'' (1993), witten by Mies and scholar [[Vandana Shiva]] used a Marxist approach to evaluate climate change, loss of diversity, multi-systemic failures, and resistance. They evaluated how production systems and accumulation caused dispossession of land and culture, leading to problems such as world hunger.<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff">{{cite journal |last1=Andrieu |first1=Jimena |last2=Eliosoff Ferrero |first2=María Julia |title=Crisis multisistémicas y resistencias en los territorios latinoamericanos. Diálogo con Maria Mies y Vandana Shiva desde el ecofeminismo |journal=Cuadernos de Economía Crítica |date=2019 |volume=5 |issue=10 |pages=171–177 |url=https://doaj.org/article/d0baa90f891a4090ab1efd7dcf1c75d6 |access-date=20 May 2023 |trans-title=Multisystemic Crises and Resistance in Latin American Territories: Dialogue with Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva about Ecofeminism |publisher=Sociedad de Economía Crítica de Argentina y Uruguay |location=Buenos Aires, Argentina |language=Spanish |issn=2408-400X |oclc=9456617883}}</ref>{{rp|171–172}} Mies and Shiva argued that women were linked internationally by their common experiences related to capitalist expansion. According to the environmental scholar [[Catriona Sandilands]], unlike other ecofeminist works the book demonstrated that despite geographical differences and socio-economic variances "women's lives and bodies are being colonised" through capitalist mechanisms.<ref name="Sandilands" />{{rp|97–98}} Yet, Sandilands also said that gender was not the only factor involved in creating capitalist inequalities, and that basing theira theory based on that single premise, ismust be flawed. She statedsaid that especially given the lackdiversity of evidence that women's collectivelyexperiences haveand evercultural universally shared experiencescontexts, the claim that subsistence activities canwould solve global distribution problems might be romanticizing their proposed solutionutopian.<ref name="Sandilands" />{{rp|98}}

The book was updated and republished in 2014, concluding that the issues it had addressed were worsening instead of improving,. andIt was also translated into Spanish in 2016.<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff" />{{rp|171–172}} Evaluating the links between technology and, science, and cultural development, scholars Jimena Andrieu and María Julia Eliosoff Ferrero, notedsaid that Mies and Shiva pointed out that globalisation has led to a crisis which reduced human freedoms by [[Commodification|commodifying]] and [[Privatization|privatising]] everything to increase production and profits, thereby reducing human freedoms.<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff" />{{rp|173}} TheyMies and Shiva argued that by placing nurturing of life and health as the focal point of economics, a balance between society, the economy, and the ecosystem iswould be restored.<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff" />{{rp|174}} The re-issuance of the book sparked new debate on the roles of women in activist movements in the Global South. WithAndrieu and Eliosoff disagreed with the theory, saying that with large sectors of the population unemployed and living in poverty in the southern hemisphere, the turn toward subsistence and producing only goods that sustain life becomeswas questionable, according to Andrieu and Eliosoff.<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff" />{{rp|175}}

In ''The Subsistence Perspective'' (1999), Mies and Bennholdt-Thomsen argued that subsistence production, the production of [[goods]] and [[Goods and services|services]] for personal or community use, has been devalued, hidden, and [[marginalised]] by capitalist systems. Using the "iceberg model", they noted that the only visible labour in a traditional capitalistic society is that of the formal labour force. Hidden below the surface, the base of the iceberg represents unpaid domestic work, [[Care work|caring]], and [[Informal economy|informal labour]],<ref name="Kazuo">{{cite journal |last1=Kazuo |first1=Suzuki |script-title=ja:つの経済の分析枠組み |journal={{lang|ja|季刊経済理論|italic=no}} / Political Economic Quarterly |date=2019 |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=48–62 |doi=10.20667/peq.56.2_48 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/peq/56/2/56_48/_pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |trans-title=Analytical Framework for Two Economies |publisher=[[Musashi University]] for the Economic Theory Society |location=Tokyo, Japan |language=Japanese |issn=1882-5184 |oclc=9648139033}}</ref>{{rp|59}} which includes various forms of untaxed labour such as micro-entrepreneurs, child labourers and family members who work for other family members, and non-permanent workers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Packard |first1=Truman G. |last2=Koettl |first2=Johannes |last3=Montenegro |first3=Claudio |title=In from the Shadow: Integrating Europe's Informal Labor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KG0i36x16boC&pg=PA2 |date=2012 |publisher=World Bank Publications |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-0-8213-9550-9}}</ref>{{rp|2}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Perez-Lopez |first1=Jorge |last2=Schoepfle |first2=Gregory |title=The Informal Sector and Worker Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvS1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA2 |date=1993 |publisher=U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs |location=Washington, D.C. |oclc=1225668698}}</ref>{{rp|2}} They argued instead, in favour of a society in which, instead of delegating labour-intensive work to certain segments of the population, communities shared all tasks within communities,.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dreysse |first1=Carmen |title=Geneviève Pruvost, Quotidien Politique. Féminisme, écologie, subsistance |journal=Les comptes rendus / Lectures |date=2022 |doi=10.4000/lectures.53857 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/lectures/53857 |access-date=21 May 2023 |trans-title=Geneviève Pruvost, Political Daily. Feminism, Ecology, Subsistence |publisher=[[École normale supérieure de Lyon]] |location=Lyon, France |s2cid=246312772 |language=French |issn=2116-5289 |oclc=9396193148}}</ref> givingThe sharing model would give each person a basic income, some security, and a measure of power in decision-making.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kanji |first1=Nazneen |title=Mind the Gap: Mainstreaming Gender and Participation in Development |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep18134 |date=2003 |publisher=[[International Institute for Environment and Development]] |location=London |chapter=Preface |pages=vii–xii |chapter-url=http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep18134.3|isbn=978-1-84369-466-3}}</ref>{{rp|xi}} The book was called an "excellent feminist source on political economy" by the sociologist [[Ariel Salleh]] of the [[Western Sydney University]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Salleh |first1=Ariel |author-link=Ariel Salleh |title=Reviewed Work: The Politics of Money: Towards Sustainability and Economic Democracy by Frances Hutchinson, Mary Mellor, Wendy Olsen |journal=[[Organization & Environment]] |date=September 2003 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=395–398 |doi=10.1177/10860266030163010 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26162484 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |jstor=26162484 |s2cid=220752627 |issn=1086-0266 |oclc=7851086801}}</ref>{{rp|396}}

Author Monika Mengel, stated that Mies diedis onregarded 15as Maya 2023,pioneer atof agewomen's 92.studies in Germany<ref name="SpiegelMengel" />{{cite magazineand |title=MariaIreen MiesDubel, 92 |url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/maria-mies-92-nachruf-a-66b88048-3266-4851-b8c2-a16a2c663a78?context=issue |access-date=19policy Mayexpert 2023on |magazine=[[Derwomen's Spiegel]] |date=19 May 2023 |language=de |publisher=Spiegel-Verlag |location=Hamburgrights, Germanystated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519152739/https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/maria-mies-92-nachruf-a-66b88048-3266-4851-b8c2-a16a2c663a78?context=issuethat |archive-date=19not Mayonly 2023were |url-status=live}}</ref><refher name="Mascarenhas"scholarly />contributions Author Monika Mengelpioneering, statedbut thatthey Miesserved isas regarded"inspiration asfor adifferent pioneergenerations of women'sfeminist studiesscholars inand Germanyactivists.<ref name="MengelDubel" /> Her original concept of "housewifisation", introduced in ''Patriarchy and Accumulation'' but developed in her study of lacemakers in India,<ref name=Prügl />{{rp|115}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bagley |first1=Jennifer |title=Mies, Maria |url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/08/09/mies-maria-2/ |website=Critics & Theorists |publisher=[[Emory University]] |access-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505054450/https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/08/09/mies-maria-2/ |archive-date=5 May 2023 |location=Atlanta, Georgia |date=July 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> is widely used by academics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Casalini |first1=Brunella |title=Neoliberal Capitalism and the 'New Sexual Contract' |url=https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/35639 |website=ECPR General Conference |publisher=[[European Consortium for Political Research]] |access-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521214855/https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/35639 |archive-date=21 May 2023 |location=Hythe Quay, Colchester |date=September 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Piccardi" >{{cite journal |last1=Piccardi |first1=Eleonora Gea |title=The Challenges of a Kurdish Ecofeminist Perspective: Maria Mies, Abdullah Öcalan, and the Praxis of Jineolojî |journal=[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]] |date=January 2022 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=46–65 |doi=10.1080/10455752.2021.1905016 |url=https://www.kurdistanamericalatina.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Challenges-of-a-Kurdish-Ecofeminist-Perspective.pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |location=Abingdon, UK |s2cid=233695302 |issn=1045-5752 |oclc=9472984417}}</ref>{{rp|47}} Mies was one of the first feminist scholars to analyze the similarities between the position of women and colonised people in socio-economic hierarchies.<ref name="Meintel">{{cite journal |last1=Meintel |first1=Deirdre |author-link=Deirdre Meintel |title=Reviewed Work: Women: the Last Colony by Maria Mies, Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Claudia Von Werlhof |journal=Labour, Capital and Society |date=November 1989 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=388–391 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43157888 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Saint Mary's University (Halifax)|Saint Mary's University]] |location=Halifax, Nova Scotia |jstor=43157888 |issn=0706-1706 |oclc=5919328453}}</ref>{{rp|389}} Her book ''Ecofeminism'' has had international impact,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Toksoy |first1=N. Gamze |title='Dünyayı Yeniden Dokumak' Shiva ve Mies'den Ekofeminizm |journal=Fe Dergi |date=June 2021 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=101–106 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1803093 |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=Kadın Sorunları Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi'nin |location=Ankara, Turkey |doi=10.46655/federgi.946958 |s2cid=238824195 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113230435/https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1803093 |archive-date=13 January 2022 |language=Turkish |trans-title='Re-Weaving the World' Ecofeminism by Shiva and Mies |issn=1309-128X |oclc=9530898453 |url-status=live|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|101}} and has been translated into several languages, including Spanish<ref name="Andrieu & Eliosoff" />{{rp|171}} and Turkish.<ref name="Piccardi" />{{rp|46}}

* {{cite book |ref=none |last=Mies |first=Maria |title=Indian Women and Patriarchy: Conflicts and Dilemmas of Students and Working Women |date=1980 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |location=New Delhi |oclc=7635521}} (English translation of her thesis).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bardhan |first1=Kalpana |title=Being A Woman in South Asia |journal=[[Journal of Women's History]] |date=Spring 1990 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=200–219 |doi=10.1353/jowh.2010.0193 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/363194/pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=Baltimore, Maryland |s2cid=145690300 |issn=1042-7961 |oclc=4896481013}}</ref>{{rp|207}}{{subscription neededrequired|via=[[Project MUSE]]}}