Unveiling the Hidden Struggles and Radical Love Behind Carework: An Exclusive Interview with Jennifer Case
EW: You share that 50% of women who caretake a relative report loss of income or loss of professional opportunities or promotions at work, and if this occurs early enough in their careers, they are 2.5% more likely to end up in poverty, often themselves lacking health care. What are some of the other ways that you see women being adversely affected by carework?
JC: In addition to financial repercussions, women can experience physical and psychological repercussions. I know so many women who have struggled with burnout after prolonged periods of caretaking. Women who become exhausted, bitter, and physically ill. In The Myth of Normal, Gabor Maté actually stresses this quite a bit. He describes how the tendency of women to prioritize others’ needs over their own, to suppress their own anger, and to become the emotional caretakers of others can lead to autoimmune disorders, weakened immune function, higher rates of depression, premature aging, and early death. In our culture, many women are trained to tend others before they tend themselves, but the costs of that add up.
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