Mothering and Caretaking

Throughout the entirety of Essential Labor, the author endeavors to redefine cultural stereotypes regarding mothering and caretaking. The author introduces her interest in interrogating the prescribed responsibilities and identities associated with these roles in her introduction. After publishing her first book, “about the science and culture of pregnancy,” Garbes says that she “wanted to move away from writing about motherhood” (8). However, despite this disinclination, Garbes explains the ways in which her personal writing endeavors and her relationships with her two daughters perpetually returned her thoughts to the subject. She began to realize that “The terrain of mothering is not limited to the people who give birth to children; it is not defined by gender” (9). She goes on to attribute this new mode of considering mothering to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic: “The pandemic revealed that mothering is some of the only true essential work humans do. Without people...