Nurture Industry
There is an industry holding society together that rarely gets recognized as an industry at all. Women raise children, teach classrooms, care for the sick, comfort the dying, support mothers through pregnancy and birth, tend to aging parents, manage households, counsel families, remember appointments, notice emotional changes, and anticipate what other people need before those needs are spoken.
Then millions of those same women go to work and do it professionally. They become nurses, teachers, social workers, therapists, childcare providers, doulas, midwives, home health aides, counselors, care coordinators, and support professionals.
We might call this the Nurture Industry. It is the vast network of paid and unpaid labor that keeps human beings alive, healthy, educated, regulated, connected, and cared for.
It raises an uncomfortable question, "Why does society depend so heavily on women’s capacity to nurture, yet so often undervalue the women doing the nurturing?"
Women protect and provide, too
For generations, Western culture has associated the word "provider" primarily with men. The father provides. The mother nurtures. But that definition of provision is painfully narrow.
Provision is not simply earning income. Who provides the meals, the emotional security, the medical care, the education, the breastfeeding support, the clean clothing, the doctor’s appointments, and the thousands of small acts that turn survival into human well-being?
Women provide every day. Women protect, too.
Men aren’t the only ones who can protect, and protection is not simply a physical concept, either. Sometimes protection looks like physical defense. Sometimes it looks like recognizing that a child is frightened, noticing that an elderly parent is becoming confused, questioning a medication error, advocating for a laboring mother, or realizing that someone in the family is quietly unraveling.
The feminine drive to protect and provide frequently expresses itself through relationships, vigilance, empathy, and care....
Read the rest at BRANZ magazine where this article was published:
and if you're interested in becoming a doula, check out this link:
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