Understanding the second shift: The mental load of unpaid work for women

From cooking and cleaning to childcare, grocery shopping and remembering family appointments, women often carry a second, unpaid workload after their paid jobs end.

For many women, the working day does not end when they leave the office, close their laptop or finish their shift.

There are meals to prepare, children to care for, laundry to fold, groceries to buy, bills to remember and appointments to arrange. Even when these tasks are shared, women often find themselves carrying the mental responsibility of remembering what needs to be done and when.

This unpaid work is often described as the “invisible workload” because, unlike paid employment, it rarely comes with a salary, a job title or formal recognition.

It includes remembering that a child needs new school shoes, checking whether there is enough food for the week, booking a doctor's appointment, planning a family birthday, monitoring school messages and making sure household essentials do not run out.

It is the constant mental checklist that can be difficult to switch off.

A woman may be sitting on the couch after dinner, but her mind could still be racing through tomorrow's responsibilities.

When the responsibility for these decisions repeatedly falls on one person, the result can be exhaustion, frustration and resentment.

One of the biggest challenges is that women can find themselves working two jobs: one that is paid and another that is not.

A woman may spend eight hours at work before returning home to cook, clean and care for her family.

Her partner may help with some household tasks, but there is an important distinction between helping and sharing responsibility.

If one person has to ask the other to wash the dishes, pack the children's lunches or buy groceries, that person may still be carrying the mental responsibility for running the household.

True equality means that both partners recognise what needs to be done — rather than one person acting as the household manager and the other waiting for instructions.

Women are also often confronted with expectations about what a good partner, mother or daughter should be.