Why our culture undervalues ’emotional labor’
Is a smiling flight attendant performing emotional labor? How about the harried mom baking cupcakes for a kindergarten class, or your friend who’s always ready to listen and dispense advice? The term “emotional labor” was first coined in 1983 by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild to refer to jobs that require people to manage the feelings of others at the expense of their own. Consider, for instance, how child-care workers and teachers must maintain a cheerful, positive tone with their charges and parents, regardless of how they feel. The concept has been expanded and become a lens to view a variety of paid and unpaid work, including household chores and household management, social organizing at the office, and intimate relationships, with an eye toward the hidden, unacknowledged costs of time, effort, and stress. And in the seminar course “Love’s Labors Found: Uncovering Histories of Emotional Labor,” Caroline Light and her students scrutinize the...