Chapter 12 Enriching the Earth Summary and Analysis

Chapter 12 takes a global look at humanity as Mary Catherine Bateson wraps up the book.

First, she reviews what she has learned by interviewing these five women and what they have in common. All of the women have cared for their families, but their caretaking also reaches out to the society in which they live and work. All of the women know that their productivity depends on flexibility. All of them are "conservers" where they recycle previous knowledge and relationships. All five of the women live with a high level of ambiguity. All of them work too hard and unfortunately, none of them is superwoman.

When Mary started this book, she had a sharp awareness of discontinuities in the lives of many women, and she started out the project writing bitterly about it. By the...