The 'reserve army of labour' (or industrial reserve army) is a concept developed by Karl Marx to describe a pool of unemployed or underemployed individuals who are available to be drawn into the workforce when needed by capital, and pushed out during economic downturns. This surplus population serves several functions for capitalism: it keeps wages down by creating competition for jobs, acts as a disciplinary force on employed workers, and provides a flexible labor supply for economic expansion.

Feminist scholars have critically engaged with and expanded upon Marx's concept, arguing that the reserve army of labor is profoundly gendered. They contend that women disproportionately constitute this reserve, making them particularly vulnerable to exploitation within capitalist systems. Here's their position:

1. Gendered Segmentation: Feminist analyses highlight how women are often relegated to precarious, low-wage, part-time, or informal sector jobs, making them the first to be hired during booms and the first to be laid off during recessions. This is often due to prevailing patriarchal norms that define women's work as secondary or supplementary to men's.
2. Reproductive Labor: A key argument is that women's primary role in unpaid domestic work and caregiving (reproductive labor) makes them an ideal flexible labor force. When the economy needs more workers, women can be drawn from the domestic sphere into paid employment. When demand falls, they can be pushed back into the home, where their unpaid labor continues to support the system by reproducing the workforce.
3. Intersectionality: Many feminist scholars, particularly those with an intersectional perspective, emphasize that the experience of being part of the reserve army is not uniform for all women. Race, class, migration status, and ethnicity intersect with gender to create even deeper layers of marginalization and vulnerability for certain groups of women (e.g., migrant domestic workers, women of color in low-skill manufacturing).
4. Reinforcement of Patriarchy: Feminists argue that this gendered reserve army not only benefits capitalism by providing cheap and flexible labor but also reinforces patriarchal structures by maintaining women's economic dependence and their subordinate position in both the labor market and the family. It perpetuates the idea that women's primary role is domestic, making their paid work seem optional or temporary.

In essence, feminist scholars demonstrate that the 'reserve army of labor' is not a neutral economic phenomenon but a deeply gendered mechanism that exploits women's labor, both paid and unpaid, to serve the interests of capital while simultaneously upholding patriarchal social relations.