Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power

“Women across the world are taught from a very young age to regulate, modulate, and manipulate their feelings in order to have a positive effect on the feelings of others,” according to this thought-provoking survey. Journalist Hackman interweaves her personal experiences with sociological and scientific research documenting how the “emotional labor” performed by women in personal and professional settings is undervalued. Profile subjects (identified by first name only) include Joann, a parks and recreation manager in California, who tells her female swim instructors to temper their coaching with encouraging words because parents expect “upspeak” from women, and Lilith, a former dominatrix whose work was “majority psychology and emotional labor, and minority sexual act.” Hackman also analyzes how criticism of Hillary Clinton’s lack of personal warmth helped derail her presidential campaign, cites neuroscience experiments suggesting that “fixed gender traits have been exceedingly exaggerated,” and analyzes the links between slavery and the American economy’s reliance on “the free labor of women.” Throughout, she makes clear that men also suffer from the societal expectation that they must rely on women for emotional support. Expertly blending case studies and statistics, this is a profound call for reorienting “our fundamental value systems.” (Mar.)