The incredible Les femmes du lien is to be put in all hands!

Their names are Valérie, Marie-Basile, Rachel, Séverine, Julie, Marie-Ève, Angélique and Marie-Claude. They are social and family intervention technicians, home assistants, educational and social assistants, social life assistants, specialized educators, family assistants, educators and carers..

From cradle to grave, they accompany and take care of others, tirelessly weaving social bonds despite the lack of means and recognition. And insufficient pay that often keeps them precarious. They are the heroines of The women of the connectionthe incredible work of Vincent Jarousseau, published in Arènes this week.

Of this photographer and documentary maker, we had already devoured the Roots of anger (Les Arènes, 2019) – France Info Award for current affairs and reportage comics -, a glowing book that told the France of the forgotten by mixing documentaries, comics and photo novels.

The women of the connection, or the “real life” of essential workers

The women of the connection uses the same hybrid format to capture “the real life of essential workers”. Of those who represent 1 in 4 working women, or about 3 million working women, mainly from blue-collar backgrounds. Of those who are at the forefront to accompany and help the human being in the various key moments of his life. And not necessarily the easiest.

If they were sneaked into the light during the health crisis, they quickly fell into the shadows. And this, despite the parliamentary report made in 2020 by MEPs François Ruffin and Bruno Bonnell on liaison professions whose women make up over 85% of the workforce, according to the author.

A photo novel in the daily life of 8 women

For nearly two years, before and after the pandemic, Vincent Jarousseau met eight of them which are at the center of many chapters that make up this beautiful documentary book. Each opens like a door to unknown universes. The author traces the trajectories of these women thanks to the beautiful comics by Thierry Chavant before moving on to the photo novel that follows them at work, but also in their private life.

We are immersed, from the north of France to the Seine-Saint-Denis, in a daily life as varied as it is exhausting, made up of small victories and, at times, of discouragement. Captured by the monumental energy that each of them puts in place to try to satisfy the needs – or rather, anticipate them – of those they accompany; children in foster care, families in difficulty, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, lost or damaged …

One of the great successes of the author is that he never sinks into misery, into angelism or into generalities. But to make them talk. Because these women have things to tell and teach us about the fractures of society, about the end of life, about early childhood, about the state of the social sector or the public hospital. Page after page, we also hear the voices of those who follow and who, despite the diversity of their situations, continue to ask themselves: “What would we do without you? “.

The women of the connection: an upright book

Les femmes du lien is a necessary and moving book with struts that resonates like a tribute to its eight heroines. But also to all those, invisible and invisible, who in the end keep a good part of the French social fabric at a safe distance. It is also a call for better promotion of these professions, with feminist accents. Why not ask ourselves about the correlation between the significant feminization of these professions and their lack of recognition… Buy or offer therefore, urgently!

The women of the bond, by Vincent Jarousseau, Les Arènes, 24.90 €