“You might think this is a book for parents. Essential Labor is a rigorous, heartfelt, and deeply hopeful book." - Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space "Mothering is an invisible form of labor that is too rarely given its due as skilled, multi-dimensional work. Through historical analysis, personal narrative, and expert storytelling, Garbes illuminates the ways in which this essential work is devalued, under compensated, and inequitably distributed, while also offering a vision for a better future.
I know I will think about this book for the rest of my life-it's that important." - Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State She offers a path forward for family life that is simultaneously instinctive, generous, and revolutionary, sounding a note that American society badly needs to hear. Angela Garbes seamlessly weaves together memoir, research, and cultural analysis in a way that is expansive and profoundly intimate. "I have never felt more held, challenged, and called to action by a book. Part galvanizing manifesto, part poignant narrative, Essential Labor is a beautifully rendered reflection on care that reminds us of the irrefutable power and beauty of mothering. This is highly skilled labor, work that impacts society at its most foundational level. Garbes contends that while the labor of raising children is devalued in America, the act of mothering offers the radical potential to create a more equitable society. In Essential Labor, Garbes reframes the physically and mentally draining work of meeting a child's bodily and emotional needs as opportunities to find meaning, to nurture a deeper sense of self, pleasure, and belonging.
A first-generation Filipino-American, Garbes shares the perspective of her family's complicated relationship to care work, placing mothering in a global context-the invisible economic engine that has been historically demanded of women of color. In Essential Labor, Garbes explores assumptions about care, work, and deservedness, offering a deeply personal and rigorously reported look at what mothering is, and can be. In response to the increasing weight placed on mothers and caregivers-and the lack of a social safety net to support them-writer Angela Garbes found herself pondering a vital question: How, under our current circumstances that leave us lonely, exhausted, and financially strained, might we demand more from American family life? The Covid-19 pandemic shed fresh light on a long-overlooked truth: mothering is among the only essential work humans do. From the acclaimed author of Like a Mother comes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.
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