essential labor mothering as social change

In Chapter 6, 'Mothering as Encouraging Appetites,' Garbes recalls her voracious childhood appetite. She considers disabled and aging bodies by way of example. In Part II, 'Exploring Mothering as Social Change,' Chapter 5, 'Mothering Insists on Worthiness,' Garbes considers how caretakers might teach children about the worth and value of all bodies. She wonders how American families might seek more collective and communal forms of caretaking in order to rediscover the innate joys of family life. Whereas these experiences were vibrant and vivid, her life with her brothers and parents felt isolated and absent of community. In Chapter 4, 'Mothering as Human Interdependence,' Garbes describes her childhood holidays spent with her extended family. She speaks about the body as a vehicle for caring for others. In Chapter 3, 'Mothering as Erotic Labor,' Garbes references writers Ocean Vuong's and Audre Lorde's writings about loving and caretaking in order to argue that mothering is innately sensual. This is just one of the reasons Garbes believes society should place more value on mothering and caretaking. Without women and the roles they play in caring for children, society would not survive. In Chapter 2, 'Mothering as Valuable Labor,' Garbes considers the relationship between mothering and giving life. The pandemic not only altered how families had to relate to one another, but exposed the ways in which historical nuclear family structures no longer work for contemporary American families. She describes how the lockdown particularly changed her family life. In Part I, 'A Personal History of Mothering in America,' Chapter 1, 'Mothering as Survival,' Garbes describes the ways in which the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic disrupted family lives throughout the world. She explains her inspirations behind the text and her hopes of reinventing stereotypically feminine roles in the home and family. She goes on to describe how raising her two daughters has changed how she once defined mothering.

In the introduction, Garbes considers what it means to be a mother by describing her mother's lifelong work as a nurse, mother, and caretaker. The following summary relies upon the present tense and follows Garbes's overarching organizational structure. The text is organized into an introduction and two parts containing nine titled chapters. HarperCollins Publishers, 2022.Īngela Garbes's nonfiction text Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change is written from Garbes's first person point of view and employs both the past and present tenses. Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change. The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Garbes, Angela.

Essential labor mothering as social change