The Dignity of Dependence - (Catholic Ideas for a Secular World) by Leah Libresco Sargeant (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Dignity of Dependence argues that women's equal rights depend on advocating for women as women.

The world is not ready to welcome women as women; a culture that fears dependence and asks everyone to aim for autonomy and independence will always be a society hostile to women. Women are expected to care for those around them while living in a society that despises need and penalizes those who care for the weak.

The Dignity of Dependence aims to liberate women and men from this corrosive and false ideal of the human person as strongest alone. Leah Libresco Sargeant argues that to thrive, human beings need to exist in webs of mutual dependence, not in isolating, radical autonomy. Women's equal dignity doesn't require women to deny biological reality or attempt to be interchangeable with men. Sargeant advocates for building a culture that accepts and celebrates women as they are rather than demanding that women keep their relationships and their bodies in check. The fight for women's dignity is a fight for a full, human dignity--a dignity that isn't threatened by dependence. It is our need for each other that makes us human.

Review Quotes

"Leah Libresco Sargeant has written a beautiful and profound meditation on what it means to be human. The Dignity of Dependence is a humanist manifesto of the finest caliber and a cri de coeur that all of us would be wise to heed." --Ryan T. Anderson, co-author of Tearing Us Apart

"Leah Libresco Sargeant is one of those rare prophetic voices: redescribing the world around us to see it with fresh perception, and enjoining us to a future worth building together. These stories and ideas of dependence-with-dignity will help readers find their way to a vision of life with needfulness fully intact, a gift economy of both giving and receiving." --Sara Hendren, author of What Can a Body Do?

"This book cuts through tribal lines to offer something truly innovative: a vision that is pro-feminist, pro-femaleness, and pro-human life, that sees the interests of men and women as interdependent rather than at odds. This is an exciting, provocative, original book." --Abigail Favale, author of The Genesis of Gender

"This book isn't just a feminist manifesto--it's a human manifesto. It is one of the wisest and most compelling portrayals of human dignity I've ever read."--Karen Swallow Prior, author of You Have a Calling

"With sharp insight and persuasive argument, Sargeant dismantles the false vision of humanity that undervalues care, vulnerability, and interdependence--offering instead a radical reimagining of dignity itself. This book is a call to embrace relationships of encounter, where care is not a burden but a shared and dignified act of love." --Kristin Collier, clinical associate professor of internal medicine and associate residency program director, University of Michigan Medical School

"The Dignity of Dependence provides a window into Leah Libresco Sargeant's beautiful mind, allowing us to see the world as she sees it and to imagine we can become the men and women she believes we can be. This magnificent book is a love letter, not only to her own beloved husband and children, but to all women, all children, and all men, too. A humane and dignified vision of how men, women, and children can thrive together, as the kinds of beings we are, with plenty of space for the most vulnerable among us." --Erika Bachiochi, author of The Rights of Women

"This wise, perceptive book is an essential corrective to the tendency of our society to identify independence with flourishing. As Leah Libresco Sargeant shows, flourishing is only possible if we depend on those we love, and if they depend on us. This is essential reading for all who have been shaped toward blindness to this simple truth--and so maybe for men above all." --Yuval Levin, author of American Covenant

About the Author

Leah Libresco Sargeant Sargeant is a writer and speaker whose work covers religion, culture, statistics, and family policy. She is the author of Building the Benedict Option and Arriving at Amen. She runs the Substack community Other Feminisms.