I went into a research rabbit hole this fall after rereading “Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times” by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Join me as I share some of the works I discovered.
Young archeologist Elizabeth Wayland Barber began researching women’s contributions to early society, thinking she would write a paper, revised that to a book and then made it a life’s work. Male researchers had, for the most part, ignored findings of ephemeral fibers and families. “Women’s Work” has a deserved place on American Scientist’s list of “100 or So Books That Shaped a Century of Science.”
“Women’s work” has often meant labor traditionally seen as the domain of women, often linked to specific stereotypical roles that are viewed as inherently feminine or related to domestic responsibilities that include low or no pay. However, women and their supporters are working to evolve that, to turn ‘women’s work’ into anything a woman aspires to do.
I discovered many other books that inform and encourage women to rise and claim their power. And I personally include other disfranchised people when I consider this evolution. Understanding that these authors have directed their work towards a select audience doesn’t mean the reader has to stay in that lane.
With “Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All and What to Do Instead,” Lisa Selin Davis discusses the invented roles of “breadwinner” and “homemaker” throughout the history of American society and the impact of that division on women’s health and happiness. The author shares anecdotes from traditional housewives as well as career-oriented women and fathers who are the primary caregiver and who are overlooked by schools, doctors and others — a parenting double standard. Enjoy the author’s thoughts on policy shifts as she outlines how to reach interdependence in our culture and in our personal homes.
Similarly, in “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net,” sociologist Jessica Calarco asks why America continues to expect women to be the social safety nets for our communities. This book is the culmination of a five-year study of over 4,000 families, and it is a courageous appeal for institutional reforms that we all deserve.
While the struggle between stereotypical expectations and societal change continues, we look up to women leading in the business world, heading major scientific research projects, being strong representatives of their states and countries, and in other ways challenging the status quo dividing work between gender roles.
Two such women are Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM, and Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta. In her memoir “Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work and the World,” Rometty speaks of discovering how to influence and transform the world using ‘good power’ that drives positive change for everyone. She leads you through her own transformation, sharing actionable advice and championing a better future.
Still appearing on ‘must-read’ lists despite being over a decade old, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” has inspired women everywhere to claim their rightful place at the table. Rather than shying away from workplace and life challenges, Sheryl Sandberg tells us to embrace boldness, to develop our own leadership and negotiation styles and to ‘lean in’ to win.
Naomi Cahn, June Carbone and Nancy Levit explore competition in “Fair Shake: Women and the Fight To Build a Fair Economy.” They explore the concepts of the ”willingness to accept” and “willingness to pay” economy and the winner-take-all ethos of the political sphere. Through stories and studies, you’ll be informed about unequal pay, unequal recognition, sexual harassment and toxic workplaces. Pick up “Fair Shake” to learn the authors’ three-step plan to effectively push back against these problems.
In a very candid memoir about being an upper-class woman who hired caregivers for her children, Megan K. Stack shares her growing awareness of those caregivers’ harsh lives. For “Women’s Work: A Reckoning With Work and Home,” Stack turned a journalistic eye on the trade-offs her caregivers had to make between home life and extended work assignments in another’s home. While this is set in China and India, a good book pairing with similar relationships between women might be “The Help” by Katherine Stockett.
I am an informal historian of women’s lives, and I so enjoyed writing this article for Women’s History Month. I hope you enjoy your own exploration into women’s work! The library has a wealth of information for you.
