Episode 404:
The Work No One Sees with Rebekah Pierce
Did you ever think of the work you naturally do as a woman, mother, and/or teacher, work that holds up the whole system, isn't actually harmless? In fact, Rebekah Pierce uses a different word for it: Destructive
In this episode of Roar, Danielle Davies sits down with educator, author, and womanist thinker Rebekah Pierce to talk about something that feels specific to classrooms, but isn’t. Because while this conversation starts with teaching, it quickly becomes about something much bigger: who is expected to carry people, absorb pressure, and create stability inside systems that were never designed to support them in the first place.
Rebekah’s work challenges one of the most deeply ingrained assumptions in education—that learning begins with productivity. Instead, she asks a different question: What happens when we center humanity first? And even more importantly: Who is already doing that work, without recognition?
Together, Danielle & Rebekah talk about:
🔥 Why classrooms often rely on emotional labor more than curriculum
🔥 The invisible work teachers do to create safety, stability, and trust
🔥 How “care” becomes an expectation, not a choice
🔥 The womanist lens: who is doing the sustaining work (and why)
🔥 What it means to operate inside systems that were never built for wholeness
🔥 How women internalize the role of “holding everything together”
🔥 The cost of constantly choosing humanity inside productivity-driven environments
🔥 Why systems don’t change
This conversation starts in a classroom, but it doesn’t stay there. Because once you see it, you can’t unsee the ways women hold space, absorb impact, and make things work that were never designed to.
Key Takeaways
• Systems often function because of people, not because they work well
• Emotional labor is not extra. It’s what makes environments survivable
• Women are disproportionately expected to carry that labor
• Care has been reframed as obligation instead of choice
• Real change would require systems to stop relying on over-functioning individuals
Links Related to this Convo:
Before the Lesson Begins
Rebekah's Substacks:
https://captainjacknovellaseries.substack.com/
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