"I have never felt more held, challenged, and called to action by a book. Angela Garbes seamlessly weaves together memoir, research, and cultural analysis in a way that is expansive and profoundly intimate. 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. 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
"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. 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
“You might think this is a book for parents. You're wrong. Essential Labor expands our understanding of what "mothering" can and should look like; it's a book for anyone — including and especially people who aren't parents — who wants to imagine what a more equitable and caring community could look like.” — Anne Helen Petersen, author of Out of Office and Can’t Even
"Essential Labor is exactly the right book, written by exactly the right author. at exactly the right moment. Garbes's work will help us put ourselves, our families, and our communities back together in a way that is more compassionate, more embodied, and more alive than before." — Emily Nagoski, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author of Come As You Are and Burnout
"A book that feels both sprawling in scope and intimate in execution—what a thrill to follow Angela’s mind as she radically reimagines the value assigned to care work.” — Mayukh Sen, author of Taste Makers
“Angela Garbes has given us the definitive explanation for something we all share: the sense that something is not right about our society’s treatment of parenting. Essential Labor is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched, and courageously personal book. Garbes reveals the way systems exploit caregiving and shows us how the essential work of mothering can fix not just family life, but society. A timely and unforgettable book.” — Heather McGhee, New York Times bestselling author of The Sum of Us
"In Essential Labor, Angela Garbes defines motherhood as a form of collective labor, contemplating love as a communal act and envisioning a society in which care work is no longer considered separate from or lesser than paid work. This book is a bold and generous offering that brings us closer to a future in which the everyday labor of care is treated to the reverence and value it is truly worth. Everyone should read this book." — Carvell Wallace, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Sixth Man
"In Essential Labor, Garbes challenges our preconceived notions about the value and visibility of mothering, and indeed, all caregiving work. She asks us to recognize how our personal biases and complicity in larger systems have caused us to so consistently privilege one kind of motherhood (white, thin, heteronormative, wealthy) over all others. And she then blows it all apart, and imagines a far better world, with gorgeous prose and heart-breaking precision." — Virginia Sole-Smith, author of The Eating Instinct
“Meditation, memoir, and manifesto in one, this book makes a case for the mother in all of us. It’s an expansive and intimate testament to how and why we should care for others—and ourselves.” — Ligaya Mishan, New York Times writer and coauthor of Filipinx
"[Angela Garbes reflects] on the power that mothering holds in creating a better world, one which respects care as the critical infrastructure making all institutions possible." — Booklist
“When it comes out on May 10, this book is going straight to the top of the to-be-read pile” — Good Housekeeping
“A celebration of caregiving. . . . A sensitive reflection on essential work.” — Kirkus
"In Essential Labor, Angela Garbes defines motherhood as a form of collective labor, contemplating love as a communal act and envisioning a society in which care work is no longer considered separate from or lesser than paid work. This book is a bold and generous offering that brings us closer to a future in which the everyday labor of care is treated to the reverence and value it is truly worth. Everyone should read this book."
You might think this is a book for parents. You're wrong. Essential Labor expands our understanding of what "mothering" can and should look like; it's a book for anyone — including and especially people who aren't parents — who wants to imagine what a more equitable and caring community could look like.
Angela Garbes has given us the definitive explanation for something we all share: the sense that something is not right about our society’s treatment of parenting. Essential Labor is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched, and courageously personal book. Garbes reveals the way systems exploit caregiving and shows us how the essential work of mothering can fix not just family life, but society. A timely and unforgettable book.”
"In Essential Labor, Garbes challenges our preconceived notions about the value and visibility of mothering, and indeed, all caregiving work. She asks us to recognize how our personal biases and complicity in larger systems have caused us to so consistently privilege one kind of motherhood (white, thin, heteronormative, wealthy) over all others. And she then blows it all apart, and imagines a far better world, with gorgeous prose and heart-breaking precision."
"Essential Labor is exactly the right book, written by exactly the right author. at exactly the right moment. Garbes's work will help us put ourselves, our families, and our communities back together in a way that is more compassionate, more embodied, and more alive than before."
"A book that feels both sprawling in scope and intimate in execution—what a thrill to follow Angela’s mind as she radically reimagines the value assigned to care work.”
"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. Essential Labor is a rigorous, heartfelt, and deeply hopeful book."
"I have never felt more held, challenged, and called to action by a book. Angela Garbes seamlessly weaves together memoir, research, and cultural analysis in a way that is expansive and profoundly intimate. 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. I know I will think about this book for the rest of my life—it's that important."
Meditation, memoir, and manifesto in one, this book makes a case for the mother in all of us. It’s an expansive and intimate testament to how and why we should care for others—and ourselves.
"[Angela Garbes reflects] on the power that mothering holds in creating a better world, one which respects care as the critical infrastructure making all institutions possible."
"[Angela Garbes reflects] on the power that mothering holds in creating a better world, one which respects care as the critical infrastructure making all institutions possible."
You might think this is a book for parents. You're wrong. Essential Labor expands our understanding of what "mothering" can and should look like; it's a book for anyone — including and especially people who aren't parents — who wants to imagine what a more equitable and caring community could look like.
2022-04-06
A celebration of caregiving.
Garbes, a Filipina who describes herself as “a woman of color, a writer, and a mother,” melds memoir with social, political, and cultural critique to offer a thoughtful analysis of the social and personal complexities of mothering. Growing up with a mother who was a nurse and a doctor father, she admits, “one of the luxuries of my childhood was to remain oblivious to all the work that went into raising me.” Raising a child and caring for a home are only parts of what Garbes means by mothering, which, she writes, includes anyone engaged in “the practice of creating, nurturing, affirming and supporting life” within one’s family and community. The author argues persuasively that “the global economy is driven as much by care as so-called productive labor.” Garbes gives a historical overview to trace how care has become “gendered and racialized.” Her mother immigrated as part of a wave of Filipina nurses, recruited aggressively by hospital administrators, paid low wages, and often treated with hostility and resentment. As the author reports, 92% of domestic workers are women, and “fifty-seven percent of them are Black, Latina, or Asian American/Pacific Islander. We entrust the safety and cleanliness of our homes to Latinx workers, who comprise 62 percent of house cleaners.” As the global pandemic revealed to economically comfortable women who suddenly had to take on the work of primary caregivers, teachers, nannies, and house cleaners, servitude characterizes many workers that they depend on. Besides throwing necessary light on the need to recognize—and appropriately compensate—the value of mothering, Garbes draws on her personal experiences to consider “the details of caregiving, the small decisions that make up each day” in shaping children’s lives. The issues she has faced include talking about bodies and creating a world “that makes it possible for all bodies to thrive”; accepting one’s body and appetites; and fostering a love of nature.
A sensitive reflection on essential work.
