The essential labor of care work
On today\u2019s \u201cPost Reports,\u201d a conversation with author Angela Garbes about her new book, \u201cEssential Labor: Mothering as Social Change.\u201d
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In 2020, author Angela Garbes found herself at home taking care of her two daughters, clinically depressed and unable to write. It was a time when people were told to stay home, unless you were an essential worker.
\u201cBut I remember sitting there being like, \u2018What about me?\u2019 \u201d Garbes told \u201cPost Reports\u201d editor Lexie Diao. \u201cWhat about parents? What about mothers? Like, what we are doing is nothing less than essential. \u2026 The pandemic has exposed that without care, we\u2019re lost.\u201d
Garbes\u2019s new book is called \u201cEssential Labor: Mothering as Social Change.\u201d The book examines the history of caregiving in America through the lens of the author\u2019s own Filipinx identity, and makes the case that caregiving is an undervalued and overlooked labor that disproportionately relies on women of color.