Cognitive household labor: gender disparities and consequences for maternal mental health and wellbeing.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Although the division of unpaid household labor has been studied as a driver of global gender inequity, the cognitive dimension of household labor-planning, anticipating, and delegating household tasks-has received less empirical investigation. Cognitive household labor represents a form of invisible and often unacknowledged domestic work that has been challenging to measure.

Methods

Within 322 mothers of young children, we assessed the division of both cognitive ("planning") and physical ("execution") household labor within 30 common household tasks using a self-report measure.

Results

We found that while mothers did more of the overall domestic labor than their partners, the division of cognitive labor was particularly gendered, such that women's share of co

SUBMITTER: Aviv E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11761833 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature