The views of Club speakers are their own and their participation does not constitute or imply endorsement or recommendation by The Commonwealth Club. Each year, we bring nearly 500 events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy to our members and the public, both in-person and via extensive online and on-air listenership and viewership. The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum.

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.The leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation. Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change. Essential Labor: Mothering As Social Change by Angela Garbes is a book about mothering and yet it is relevant for anyone interested in the work and role of caregivers in the world today. This is highly skilled labor, work that impacts society at its most foundational level. 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. Mothering as a Radical Path Towards Social Change Angela Garbes's book 'Essential Labor' unpacks the undervalued work that goes into paid and unpaid caregiving Photo by Tanaphong Toochinda via Unsplash JR Ramakrishnan A ngela Garbes hadn’t planned to write another book on motherhood. 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. 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 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? 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. From the acclaimed author of Like a Mothercomes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.

The Covid-19 pandemic shed fresh light on a long-overlooked truth: mothering is among the only essential work humans do. NATIONAL BESTSELLER 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.

Mothering as social change