For readers of Fair Play by Eve Rodsky and Burnout by Emily
Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski comes a scathing, deeply-researched foray
into the invisible, uncompensated work women perform every day.
We're tired.
A stranger insists you "smile more," even as you navigate a high-stress
environment or grating commute. A mother is expected to oversee every
last detail of domestic life. A nurse works on the front line, worried
about her own health, but has to put on a brave face for her patients. A
young professional is denied promotion for being deemed abrasive instead
of placating her boss. Nearly every day, we find ourselves forced to
edit our emotions to accommodate and elevate the emotions of others. Too
many of us are asked to perform this exhausting, draining work at no
extra cost, especially if we're women or people of color.
Emotional labor is essential to our society and economy, but it's so
often invisible. In this groundbreaking, journalistic deep dive, Rose
Hackman shares the stories of hundreds of women, tracing the history of
this kind of work and exposing common manifestations of the phenomenon.
But Hackman doesn't simply diagnose a problem--she empowers us to combat
this insidious force and forge pathways for radical evolution, justice,
and change.
Drawing on years of research and hundreds of interviews, you'll learn:
- How emotional labor pervades our workplaces, from the bustling food
service industry to the halls of corporate America
- How race, gender, and class unequally shape the load we carry
- Strategies for leveling the imbalances that contaminate our
relationships, social circles, and households
- Empowering tools to stop anyone from gaslighting you into thinking the
work you are doing is not real work
Emotional labor is real, but it no longer has to be our burden alone.
By recognizing its value and insisting on its shared responsibility, we
can set ourselves free and forge a path to a world where empathy, love,
and caregiving claim their rightful power.
