<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.msonormal0, li.msonormal0, div.msonormal0
{mso-style-name:msonormal;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://mashable.com/article/women-girls-apa-guidelines/?europe=true&utm_cid=a-seealso">https://mashable.com/article/women-girls-apa-guidelines/?europe=true&utm_cid=a-seealso</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">WOMEN’S INVISIBLE HOUSEHOLD & FAMILY LABOR, CAN BE PHYSICALLY & MENTALLY OVERWHELMING<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><img border="0" width="624" height="351" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D52B28.37844840" alt="uploads%252Fcard%252Fimage%252F919788%252F669f16bd-6f74-4656-91e2-40d88ca72981_jpg%252F950x534__filters%253Aquality%252880%2529"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="lead-image"></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Image: Getty Images/fStop
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">By
<a href="https://mashable.com/author/rebecca-ruiz/"><span style="color:blue">Rebecca Ruiz</span></a> - 2019-01-22
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Invisible labor is a benign way of describing the never-ending, sometimes soul-crushing to-do list that
women manage in order to keep their children thriving and households running smoothly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">You might recognize the broader concept of unappreciated yet essential household work from a 2017
<a href="https://english.emmaclit.com/2017/05/20/you-shouldve-asked/" target="_blank">
<span style="color:blue">digital comic strip</span></a> on "mental load." Countless women saw their own exhaustion and simmering resentment in the comic's feminist rendering of why women end up taking on tiny tasks like unloading the dishwasher to huge decisions
like choosing a nanny. Of course, it went viral.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">A new
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-018-1001-x" target="_blank">
<span style="color:blue">study</span></a>, published Tuesday in the journal <i>Sex Roles</i>, offers original data to illustrate the widespread phenomenon of invisible labor — and its depressing impact on women's emotional and psychological well-being. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">"Do [mothers] disproportionately feel like they're running their ship on their own?" said Suniya S. Luthar,
co-author of the study and foundation professor of psychology at Arizona State University. "Just putting a number to that alone is a service to womankind." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Based on Luthar's survey of 393 American married or partnered mothers, many of whom were upper middle-class,
the answer to her question is a resounding yes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Nearly 90 percent of the participants said they bore sole responsibility for organizing their family's schedules.
Seventy percent said they were "captain" of their ship and routinely completed and assigned household tasks. That includes the everyday drudgery of getting grab bags for parties, finding someone's socks, or coordinating rides to and from practices. Or as Luthar
puts it: "All that nonsense that keeps churning around in our heads all the time." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">While being solely in charge of household routines and tasks was associated with "a certain level of misery,"
those responsibilities didn't seem to influence psychological well-being. Yet Luther says the lack of variability in women's responses to these questions made it difficult to evaluate those results next to a comparison group and find statistically significant
links between high responsibility for routines and greater increased distress for moms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">What Luthar and her
<a href="https://humansciences.okstate.edu/hdfs/cfr/research-associates/lucia-ciciolla.html" target="_blank">
<span style="color:blue">co-author</span></a> did find, however, is that when women say they're solely charged with handling their child's well-being, including being attentive to their emotions and relationships, it can lead to lower satisfaction with their
partner and their life, as well as feelings of emptiness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Two-thirds of respondents said they were responsible for being "vigilant" of their child's emotions, and
78 percent said they were the parent who knows their child's teachers and school administrators. </span><span style="font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">"To feel like you’re the only person making those decisions, and you have a partner, has got to be terrifying."
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">"You always want to have a sounding board," said Luthar, referring to wanting to share the many observations,
fears, or aspirations a mother has for her child. "To feel like you’re the only person making those decisions, and you have a partner, has got to be terrifying." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">The researchers controlled for several factors that could influence the participants' emotional and mental
health. That included whether the women felt unconditionally loved and accepted as well as how they viewed intimacy with their partners. Even when taking such variables into account, Luthar found that being solely responsible for a child's emotional development
was negatively related to women's well-being and satisfaction with their relationship. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Women eager to use Luthar's data to persuade their partners to do more should know that the study's findings
aren't causal. In others words, while there's a strong association between these experiences and maternal distress, Luthar can't yet prove one leads to the other. The study's sample also includes mostly heterosexual couples and few low-income women, so she
cautions against generalizing its insights to every mom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Luthar's solution to the stark gender disparity she's captured in the study might also surprise some women
who feel seen by her research. Though she urges women to have ongoing conversations with their partners about more equitably sharing the load of invisible labor, she believes it's vitally important for them to meaningfully connect with other supportive, empathetic
moms. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">She calls this "mothering mothers," or relationships in which women are "giving to each other the very best
of what you think of as good mothering that you offer to your children — it's solicitous, tender, kind, thoughtful, vigilant, honest, with appropriate and firm boundaries."<b>
</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Based on her work and research running
<a href="http://www.authenticconnectionsgroups.org/pages/acgroups.html" target="_blank">
<span style="color:blue">groups</span></a> that facilitate authentic connections for mothers, Luthar believes such solidarity and support helps build critical resilience, which buoys mothers no matter how much invisible labor their partner does. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">She also doesn't want moms to mistake that recommendation as a directive to take better care of themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">"I don’t want them putting another item on their already long to-do list," Luthat says. "I want them to
prioritize being taken care of. Visualize a gentle hand on your forehand. You need it every bit as much as your child does." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>