The Dignity of Dependence is out today!

NYC and DC events, reviews, and a thank you

Other Feminisms launched almost five years ago, with a first post on October 9th, 2020.

Today is the official pub date for The Dignity of Dependence.

It’s a book that would not exist without the sustained conversation (and paid subscriptions) that you have given me. When I started writing here, I had one baby. Now, I have three!

They’re too young to read it yet, but I hope that every day, I’m teaching them the two core lessons of the book.

Women’s equality with men is not premised on our interchangeability with men.

Dependence on others is not a temporary embarrassment at the beginning (and end) (and much of the middle) of our lives but the pattern for how we live together.

If you received one of the surprise early copies, and you’re able to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, it would be a big help to me in reaching new readers.

I’m posting from the train as I head north for a book launch sponsored by Plough and First Things in New York City on Thursday, Oct 2nd.

Next week, I’ll be speaking at the CIC in Washington DC on Tuesday, Oct 7th.

And, if I won’t be heading your way this fall (full tour list here), you can check out my book conversation with Chris Stefanick below.

Meanwhile, there are two new reviews out (from authors with very different opinions of feminism).

First, Agnes Howard for Christianity Today:

The key terms in this book’s title—dependence, dignity, feminist, manifesto—find relation to each other in ways that can repair faulty definitions of help. Dependence is a fact of human life. It is a feminist concern because denying it disadvantages women distinctively. Sargeant’s feminism seeks redress not mostly through balancing scales or leveling playing fields or valuing diversity. Instead, it goes beyond those, recognizing that women’s salient contributions to common thriving come through the biological fact of help.

And then Nathanael Blake for The Federalist:

This book is a much-needed antidote to the poisonous alienation between the sexes that besets our culture…

Sargeant seems to be relying on her readers already sharing the conviction that men and women are equal, and that if the ideal of autonomy is incompatible with that equality, so much the worse for the ideal of autonomy. But what of those who are willing to say that the weaker, the vulnerable, and the dependent are not equal in dignity and worth to the strong, the powerful, and the independent? In short, what of the pagans, both ancient and modern?

As your own books arrive, I’d love to hear about passages that stuck with you and plans you’re making for book clubs or a chat over coffee with a friend.

Today is a very good day to post any passage you’re thinking about and tag me if it’s on facebook or twitter (I’m too old for Instagram).

What’s one short passage you’ve marked as you’re reading?

What’s one conversation you hope the book will make it easier to have?

Most of all, thank you for the sustained, charitable conversation you have given me.