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At the Limits of Care: Gendered Work and Stories that Matter

Janna Klostermann’s At the Limits of Care: Gendered Work and Stories that Matter (University of Toronto Press, 2025) challenges dominant narratives around women and care through a blend of feminist sociological analyses and memoir. Klostermann asks: How can we have care security for those who need it without women’s endless self-sacrifice? What about the limits of care? Taking up those questions, Klostermann interrogates women’s counter-stories of reaching their limits, crossing ethical lines, and stepping back from paid or unpaid care work roles. She uncovers gendered power dynamics and their constraining effects on women’s lives, transforming the ways we think about ourselves and our relationships. The book makes a major contribution in how and what constitutes care research. Jamie Hakim writes of the book: “Blending brutally honest memoir with penetrating sociological analysis, Klostermann brilliantly exposes the profound ambivalences of care when care workers are not cared for themselves.” 

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