Invisible Labor
care work makes the whole world go round
What follows is a transcript of a talk I gave this past Sunday to the congregation of my local Unitarian Universalist church; I’ve been attending services on and off since November of 2023. It was the first time I’ve spoken in front of the congregation and the first time I’ve spoken to a large group in a while.
I want to preface that the theme of the Sunday service was creativity. I took an essay I’ve been writing and musing over for a Mother’s Day publication (come and gone) and then tweaked it to a six minute long talk. In the talk I focus on the innate creativity that is required of ongoing unpaid labor of Motherhood and care work in general (as care work is not and has never been gendered contrary to the dominant North American cult of white nationalism/conservative Christianity telling us otherwise).
The essay I am working on encompasses more on the work of feminist scholars like bell hooks, Audre Lorde and Silvia Federici as well as contemporary writers and scholars like Amanda Montei and Angela Garbes. The essay reckons more deeply about the elements of systemic racism, capitalism, white supremacy culture, and gender than the talk I gave. The main point I wanted to make is that care work IS work and it deserves to be compensated as the highly skilled and creative work it is.
After reading or listening I’d love to know your thoughts. Comments are open to free and paid subscribers and many of you here have my number. Enjoy and thank you for your care work - I see you. You make the whole world go round.
If you’d prefer to listen to the talk here is the recording. I go on around 51:20.
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Good Morning
My name is Eleanor Burke
I am the mother of 3 children. Weston age 16, Aubrey age 4, and Lars age 1. I am also a full time employee for the department of invisible labor. This job requires an on-call schedule of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It is understood that this job ends when a child turns 18. But the creative work of parenting, of relationship tending does not magically end when a child turns 18. For this work I receive no salary, no vacation time, no benefits, no 401k, no pension plan, or social security. Ironically though in order for me to have time off I must pay someone else for the work I do like a nanny or a daycare (shout out to our nanny Alison). There is little to zero public recognition, accolades, or opportunity for career advancement.
Why then, would anyone take on such a position?
Well - this job requires a multitude of highly trained skills and is inherently creative! From the physical, emotional and spiritual preparation of bearing and birthing babies in a country without universal health care or paid family leave, to the approximate 2,542 days and counting of breastfeeding humans I’ve got down; this job keeps you on your toes. There is the ongoing work of meal planner, grocery shopper, chef, birthday cake baker, gardener, administrative assistant and financial planner. I am the mender of ripped princess dresses, finder of MORE princess dresses, soother of head bonks, researcher and scholar on so many things: forest school gear, car seats for small cars, age appropriate sex education, teenage brain development, best shoes for new walkers, to woven wraps for baby wearing. I also work as a conflict mediator, massage therapist, hair stylist, interior designer, low level medic, house cleaner, laundress, chauffeur, and in some of my favorite roles as a singer, songwriter, and a storyteller.
Creativity is the thing that nourishes life. It is also the thing that nourishes the long, often tedious and boring days of stay at home Motherhood. Reading the same fairy tale again but ad libbing feminist commentary. Conjuring stories about herbs in the garden. Making sure the dress up bin is stocked. That the coloring books are fresh and the markers aren’t dry. There are movies and shows when I’m too tired and have no help. Impromptu dance parties to Pink Pony Club; walks outside when cabin fever is high and squabbles burst out; greeting our more than human neighbors by name “Hello Thimbleberry! Hello Chickadee!” I am both the theatre director and back stage props manager- making sure that the stage is set for my children’s creative work, their imaginative play, making room for their big feelings, and determined that the show must go on in spite of everything.
As bell hooks wrote in 1984 in her essay Revolutionary Parenting,
“Although early feminists demanded respect and acknowledgment for housework and childcare, they did not attribute enough significance and value to female parenting, to motherhood.”
hooks goes on to remind us that that care work is not gendered. That raising children is not supposed to happen in isolation like the nuclear family forces upon us. That the work of raising children is also the creative life’s work of a community. It’s been more than 50 years since the Wages for Housework movement began. Yet the world is nowhere close to meeting the goals of that movement- primarily, to pay financial dues for the biological and societal work of reproducing the whole human race that women and birthing people do.
I cannot parse out my creative work as a Mother from the systemic forces I mother with/and in.
I cannot parse out my creative work as a Mother from the systemic forces I mother/with/and in. People say they value creativity, that they value Motherhood and care work, but legislation says otherwise, child free spaces say otherwise, unpaid labor says otherwise. Sometimes I want to holler “can’t you see this stunning human I made with my blood and sweat and milk? Where is my Guggenheim fellowship? Where is my MacArthur genius grant?” I am still waiting. I type at my messy desk while my children shriek behind me and peel off dried food from my stained t-shirt (getting dressed up for BUF is a highlight of the week you see). The sheer act of creating and raising humans will never be enough- for me or the culture at large until we acknowledge that care work is essential labor, that care work is inherently creative and that it makes the whole world go round.
May it be so.
P.S. Support awareness around invisible labor and buy a t-shirt from the Department of Invisible labor to rock out in public- whose business name inspired the opening of my talk.