Dignity of Dependence

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.

"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"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"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 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"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"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

• 1. The World is the Wrong Shape for Women2. The Lie of the Lonely Individual3. Helping Women be Better Men4. The Incredible Shrinking Woman5. The Limits of Labor Language6. Illegal to Care7. The Blessing of Burdens8. Choosing to Care9. The School of Love