Women’s Invisible Labour in the Home
with Laura Danger
she/her
Laura Danger
On today's episode we are joined by Laura Danger, a licensed educator, certified coach and creator from Chicago who has been teaching and facilitating for over 12 years. Laura, also known by her social media handle as thatdarnchat, uses her incredibly successful social presence to empower overwhelmed caregivers to value their own time and the priceless care labour they provide.
She popularised the term Weaponised Incompetence (referring to people, mainly men, who deliberately do a task poorly in order to not be asked to do it again) and regularly speaks of domestic labour, sexism and systems of oppression. In this episode, we delve into all of this and the nuances of hyper-individualism, class, intersectionality and feminism within domestic labour and the obsession with the nuclear family.
Texts Discussed
Rose Hackman, 2020, Emotional Labour: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How To Claim our Power
Hackman explains the concept of ‘emotional labour’ - having to navigate your emotions in order to serve other people. She argues that this work is essential to keep our society running, is broadly falls to women and minorities, and is uncompensated. She discusses how this can change.
Eve Rodsky, 2019, Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution For When You Have Too Much To Do
Rodsky introduces her work by explaining all of the invisible work she alone was doing for her family. This book however primarily focuses on a practical four-rule guide to not just identifying unequally shared domestic labour, but also changing the status quo in your household.
Mia Birdsong, 2020, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community
This book discusses how despite division caused by injustice, we depend on one another, and this is a good thing. Through research, interviews, and stories of lived experience, Birdsong returns us to our inherent connectedness where we find strength, safety, and support in vulnerability and generosity, in asking for help, and in being accountable.
Mikki Kendall, 2020, Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot
Kendall argues that the modern feminist movement remains ‘white feminism’ - a project which is improving life for privileged women first. She argues that mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighbourhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues.
Danielle Dreilinger, 2021, The Secret History of Home Economics
‘Home Economics’ might feel synonymous with the women’s-only compulsory classes that the mums-of-today took in school. Dreilinger argues that it was also a science of ‘better living’ - exploding opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and providing jobs as professors, engineers, chemists, and businesspeople.