Silvia Federici
Silvia Federici (ˈsilvja fedeˈriːtʃi; born 1942) is an Italian-American scholar, teacher, and Marxist feminist activist based in New York. She is considered one of the leading theoreticians in Marxist feminist theory, women's history, political philosophy, and the history and theory of the commons. Her most famous book, Caliban and the Witch (2004), has been translated into numerous languages and adopted in college courses.
Silvia Federici

Marta Jara (eldiario.es) · eldiario.es - "Es un engaño que el trabajo asalariado sea la clave para liberar a las mujeres" · CC BY-SA 3.0 es
- Name
- Silvia Federici
- Born
- 1942
- Birthplace
- Parma, Italy
- Education
- University at Buffalo (PhD)
- Nationality
- United States and Italy.
- Occupation
- philosopher, writer, university teacher, activist and social scientist.
- Fields
- sociology, gender studies, political philosophy and social science.
- Known for
- Caliban and the Witch.
- Languages
- English and Italian.
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Documentary summary
Silvia Federici (ˈsilvja fedeˈriːtʃi; born 1942) is an Italian-American scholar, teacher, and Marxist feminist activist based in New York. She is considered one of the leading theoreticians in Marxist feminist theory, women's history, political philosophy, and the history and theory of the commons. Her most famous book, Caliban and the Witch (2004), has been translated into numerous languages and adopted in college courses.
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wikidata · Q597248 · wikipedia · Silvia Federici
In this article
Biography
Biography
For several decades, she has worked with a variety of international feminist organizations, such as Women in Nigeria (WIN) and the Latin American-based Ni una menos, to combat gender-based violence. In the 2010s, she organized a project with feminist collectives in Spain to reconstruct the history of women persecuted as witches in early modern Europe, and to raise awareness about what she believes are contemporary witch-hunts still taking place around the world.
Silvia Federici studied at University at Buffalo and University of Bologna. The recorded working language is English and Italian. The field of work recorded is sociology, gender studies and political philosophy. Places of work recorded in the authority are New York City. Employment is recorded with University of Port Harcourt and Hofstra University. Works named in the authority record are Caliban and the Witch.

This two-colour offset lithograph (dimensions 24"x36") was produced by the New York Wages for Housework Committee in 1974. The drawing by Jacquie Ursula Caldwell was accompanied by a selection of the text "Notice to All Governments" authored by Judy Quinlan, a member of the Toronto Wages for Housework Committee.
From the collection of Silvia Federici copyright Creative Commons, from the book I co-edited. It was published as Silvia Federici and Arlen Austin eds. The New York Wages for Housework Committee 1972 · Wages for Housework poster drawn by Jacquie Ursula Caldwell in 1974. The poster was printed as two colour offset lithography at 24”x36.

In 1975-1976, members of the New York Wages for Housework Committee worked to organise a conference addressing cuts to welfare programs of the Nixon and Ford administrations. This is the poster for the conference which was accompanied by a newspaper and flyers distributed from the groups Brooklyn storefront to laundromats, welfare offices, community centers, etc. to spread word of the event. It is
The New York Wages for Housework Committee · From the collection of Silvia Federici copyright Creative Commons, reproduced from the book I co-edited: Silvia Federici and Arlen Austin eds. The New York Wages for Housework Committee 1972-1977: His
Key facts
Key facts
• Region — Western philosophy • Era — Contemporary philosophy • School Tradition — * Continental philosophy • Autonomism • Marxist feminism • Name — Silvia Federici • Born — 1942 • Birthplace — Parma, Italy • Education — University at Buffalo (PhD) • Institutions — * University of Port Harcourt • Hofstra University • Notable Works — Wages Against Housework (1975) Caliban and the Witch (2004) • Partner — George Caffentzis
Early life and education
Early life and education
Federici was born in Parma, Italy, in 1942. With the aid of a Fulbright scholarship, she moved to the United States in 1967 to study for a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University at Buffalo. She completed her doctorate in 1980 with a dissertation entitled The Development of Lukács' Realism, an examination of the philosophical and aesthetic development of György Lukács. The dissertation challenges interpretations that divide Lukács's intellectual development into sharply separated pre-Marxist, Marxist-Hegelian and later aesthetic periods, instead emphasizing continuities in his attempts to reconcile idealism, Marxism and a realist conception of an objective world. During the period in which she was developing this work, Federici published "Notes on Lukács' Aesthetics" in Telos in 1972.
Academic career
Academic career
After earning her doctorate, Federici taught for several years at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. She then became Associate Professor and later Professor of Political Philosophy and International Studies at Hofstra University in New York. She holds the title of Professor Emerita at Hofstra.
Activism
Activism
In 1972, with Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James, Federici co-founded the International Feminist Collective, the organization that launched the campaign for Wages for Housework. In 1973, she helped start "Wages for Housework" groups in the U.S. In 1975, she published the pamphlet Wages Against Housework, the document most associated with the Wages for Housework movement. In the 1980s and '90s, Federici was a member of the Midnight Notes Collective. In 1990, she co-founded the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa (CAFA) and, with Ousseina Alidou, edited the CAFA bulletin for over a decade. Her involvement with CAFA led to her serving for several years as an Executive member of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS). In 1995, during the campaign to free African-American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal from death row, Federici helped launch the Anti-Death Penalty Project (ADPP) within the Radical Philosophy Association. Along with ADPP co-leaders George Caffentzis and Everet Green, Federici encouraged the global academic community to agitate against the death penalty. In March 2022, Federici was among the 151 feminists worldwide who signed Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto, in solidarity with the Russian Feminist Anti-War Resistance.
Personal life
Personal life
Federici lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her partner George Caffentzis.
Author
Editor
Editor
• (1995) (ed.) Enduring Western Civilization: The Construction of the Concept of Western Civilization and Its "Others". Westport, Connecticut, and London: Praeger. • (2000) (ed.) A Thousand Flowers: Structural Adjustment and the Struggle for Education in Africa. Africa World Press. Co-edited with George Caffentzis and Ousseina Alidou. • (2000) (ed.) African Visions: Literary Images, Political Change, and Social Struggle in Contemporary Africa. Westport, Connecticut, and London: Praeger. Co-edited with Joseph McLaren and Cheryl Mwaria. • (2021) (ed.) Feminicide and Global Accumulation: Frontline Struggles to Resist the Violence of Patriarchy and Capitalism. Brooklyn, New York: Common Notions. Co-edited with Susana Draper and Liz Mason-Deese.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1942
Silvia Federici born at Parma.
2003
zzTexte: Silvia Federici (2003) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
Scholarly contributions
Federici's best-known book, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004), expands on the work of Leopoldina Fortunati to investigate the reasons for the witch hunts that occurred in the early modern period, but Federici puts greater emphasis on a feminist interpretation. In the book, she argues against the traditional understanding of Karl Marx's concept of primitive accumulation, which is viewed as a necessary precursor for capitalism. Instead, she posits that primitive accumulation is a fundamental characteristic of capitalism itself—that the economic system, in order to perpetuate itself, requires a constant infusion of expropriated capital. She connects this expropriation to women's unpaid labour, via reproduction and otherwise, which she frames as a historical precondition to the rise of a capitalist economy predicated upon wage labor. Related to this, she outlines the historical struggles for the commons and for communalism. Instead of seeing capitalism as a liberatory defeat of feudalism, Federici interprets the ascent of capitalism as a reactionary move to subvert the rising tide of communalism and to retain the basic social contract. She situates the institutionalization of rape and prostitution—as well as the heretic and witch-hunt trials, burnings and torture—at the center of a systematic suppression of women and appropriation of their labor. This is tied into colonial expropriation and provides a framework for understanding the work of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other proxy institutions as engaging in a renewed cycle of primitive accumulation, by which everything held in common—from water, to seeds, to our genetic code—becomes privatized in what amounts to a new round of enclosures. Often described as a counterpoint to Marx's account of "primitive accumulation", Caliban reconstructs the history of capitalism, highlighting the continuity between the capitalist subjugation of women, the transatlantic slave trade, and the colonization of the Americas. The book has been described as "a retelling of the birth of capitalism that places women at the center of the story".
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Silvia Federici worked in sociology, gender studies, political philosophy, social science and philosophy. She was employed by University of Port Harcourt and Hofstra University. She worked at New York City. Recorded as philosopher, writer, university teacher, activist and social scientist.
Career and activity
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
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