SPECIAL FOCUS: WOMEN IN BUSINESS
The Invisible LOAD
EMPLOYERS CAN BENEFIT FROM RECOGNIZING AND SUPPORTING THE UNSEEN RESPONSIBILITIES MANY EMPLOYEES CARRY OUTSIDE OF WORK. By Jeanine Nistler
T
he decades-old advertising slogan “You’ve come a long way, baby” applies in myriad ways to women in today’s workforce. Females are increasingly excelling in fields once dominated by men, and the earnings gap isn’t as wide as it once was. All too often, though, women carry a heavier mental load than men. According to Gallup, 65 percent of women are primarily responsible for household management. The United Nations agency, UN Women, states
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that women perform two times more unpaid domestic and care work than men. MINDING WHAT MATTERS
Amanda Hackett, communications director for Saint Benedict’s Monastery, summarized her life this way: “One of my personal struggles, which is true for a lot of women, is carrying the weight of the invisible mental load — the things that nobody notices from the outside but certainly take a toll on the inside.” For
Hackett, this includes things like making and keeping track of the family’s appointments, signing permission slips that come home in the school folder, packing the kids’ suitcases for an overnight trip to Grandma’s house, stocking the diaper bag, packing lunches, washing the sports uniforms for tomorrow’s game, pulling the chicken out for dinner tomorrow night and making sure the ingredients needed for a special recipe are on hand, and more. “The simple act of having