The Los Angeles Review of Books printed a review of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work in September, but the reviewers seemed to misunderstand the point of the book. In October, LARB posted a written back and forth discussion between the author, Jenny Brown, and the reviewers, Meredith Goldsmith, Anna Kryczka, and Catherine Liu. In this exchange, Brown clarifies common misconceptions.
“I’m not calling for a birth strike, I’m saying women in the United States are spontaneously conducting one, and since our individual decisions are pressuring the power structure, we should now make collective demands.”
“It’s not just white professional women who are having fewer children — working-class, Black, and Latina women are, too. The reasons are a lack of affordable child care, health care, paid leave, and decent wages and housing. This is not an elite issue, but goes to the very heart of working-class life. If we cannot afford families, what is our economy for?”
“The reviewers are correct that our system pushes the work of care onto families and low-waged caregivers, and even forces some of us to become “super-caretakers.” While the rich make bank, we stress out trying to take care of parents, children, and other family members, sacrificing our livelihoods, time, well-being, and health to do so. When we demand programs to help us in this work, they shrug and say there’s no money. But care work is the foundation of our economic structure, and as we increasingly refuse to do it, the necessity of our work becomes visible. Without it there is no economy. It’s time to demand our due.”
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