The value of caring
Riane Eisler says measuring worth in society must weigh value of caring work
By Ellen Snortland 05/14/2009
I am not a reviewer, per se, but there are some books that are so important that I want to do what I can to advance their inclusion in the public discourse. “The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics,” by Dr. Riane Eisler, is one of these “must reads,” one able to transform the way we — from people shaken by our current economic chaos to those with a broader view of the global economy — view the way the world works.
A leading scholar who, after eons of invisibility, brought the feminine aspects of the divine to the forefront of people’s thinking, Eisler first came to wide public attention with her groundbreaking “The Chalice and the Blade.” Her exhaustive research and analysis showed how our histories had excluded the most peaceful and hopeful aspects of our past: long periods during which female figures were not only worshipped, but women and girls were respected as vital parts of society, sometimes even as authorities in law, religion and art.
The book made Eisler a target of some who said she was promoting an agenda that excluded males — but the exact opposite was true.
Eisler has always been a very public champion of partnerships that include everyone. Indeed, she’s the founder and president of the Center for Partnership Studies.
Eisler will be discussing her work at 10:15 a.m. Sunday at All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena, as part of the Rector’s Speakers Forum. For more information, call (626) 796-1172 or visit www.allsaints-pas.org.
In “The Real Wealth of Nations,” Eisler picks up where Adam Smith left off with his “The Wealth of Nations.” Boiled down to Twitter size, Smith — father of the so-called “invisible hand” theory of modern market economics — focused on the market but left out its REAL operators: the women who produce most of the caring services of our societies. This is work that has almost always been given, in economics, a value of nothing, and yet, without it, we would not have anything worth having, including food on our tables.
It seems that a natural extension of Eisler’s scholarship following “The Chalice and the Blade” would be the economy. After all, who benefits from the suppression of female power? What are the economic underpinnings of destroying respect for females and the feminine? Haven’t we been told from childhood to “follow the money” whenever we don’t understand something?
The aspects of life that we all care most about hardly exist on the world’s economic indices. If you were to tally the “free” labor of women, there probably would not be enough zeros to count the hours and money equivalents that women virtually donate to all of us. Let’s coin a word: “Femillions,” for the “female” invisible contribution women and girls have made for millennia to make life better.
Consider the femillions of hours and resources spent on childbirth, infant and child care, farming, marketing, cooking, cleaning, sewing, nursing the sick and elderly, volunteering, fundraising … the list is lengthy.
Consider the monetary value of Mother Nature for a second. How can an economy ignore the value of clean air, water and open space? Capitalism takes into account only those things that require capital. That is short-sighted and needs serious revamping, especially in light of our current environmental meltdown — literally and figuratively — as we tally the possibly irreparable damage of global warming and overpopulation.
Especially important right now — as we grapple with financial hardships reminiscent of the Great Depression — is saving our artists and the arts from economists who would cut the so-called “niceties” of life. How would I fare as a writer if we considered that product a luxury? Keep a lookout for the documentary “Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story,” which will air on the Smithsonian Channel, and later PBS (check smithsonianchannel.com for times).
Just think; without the Works Project Administration (WPA) of the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s, Americans would have missed out on the works of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Jim Thompson, Vardis Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, John Cheever and Studs Terkel.
As Eisler puts it, “The real wealth of our nation is its people.”
Visit www.rianeeisler.com to help in urging President Obama and Congress to create more jobs in child care, health care, eldercare, education, other “caring industries” and, of course, the arts. Let’s insist that caring is made part of our economic thinking.
Contact Ellen at snortland.com.
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