These developments are occurring without an increase in men’s participation in care work and without adequate State and market mechanisms to shift some of the care burden to society. For centuries, under successive waves of economic thought, the domestic sphere and its relationship to the rest of the economic system have been consistently ignored or analysed only partially or in the wrong way. This concept refers to an amorphous sphere of goods, services, activities, relationships and values that have to do with some of the most basic and important needs with regard to human existence and reproduction. As with any new concept, its scope and boundaries are as yet unclear.