Ai-jen Poo’s life’s work involves bringing dignity and fairness to domestic workers, often women of color, who care for our children and elders and clean our homes. She has mentored and employed leading activists, including a founder of Black Lives Matter. She’s a hidden force in American politics. Her decades-long crusade has made the “care economy” part of President Joe Biden’s agenda.

And as a woman of privilege leading a constituency with far less of it, she has grappled her entire life with a question that others have raised too: What is my place in this movement?