Ana Catalano Weeks
@anacweeks.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of Bath, author of Making Gender Salient: From Gender Quota Laws to Policy bit.ly/3wzcTGM. Editor, LSQ. gender quotas, parties, gender & far right, mental load #academicmama https://anacweeks.github.io/
So happy to wake up to this news!
November 5, 2025 at 12:01 PM
So happy to wake up to this news!
Thanks Alicia! Will message you.
November 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Thanks Alicia! Will message you.
October 29, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Full article is here (open access!):
Take a Load Off? Not for Mothers: Gender, Cognitive Labor, and the Limits of Time and Money
By Ana Catalano Weeks, Helen Kowalewska & Leah Ruppanner
📄 doi.org/10.1177/2378...
Take a Load Off? Not for Mothers: Gender, Cognitive Labor, and the Limits of Time and Money
By Ana Catalano Weeks, Helen Kowalewska & Leah Ruppanner
📄 doi.org/10.1177/2378...
Take a Load Off? Not for Mothers: Gender, Cognitive Labor, and the Limits of Time and Money - Ana Catalano Weeks, Helen Kowalewska, Leah Ruppanner, 2025
Globally, women perform the lion’s share of domestic labor. Research indicates that gender disparities in cognitive labor—the “thinking work” required to antici...
doi.org
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Full article is here (open access!):
Take a Load Off? Not for Mothers: Gender, Cognitive Labor, and the Limits of Time and Money
By Ana Catalano Weeks, Helen Kowalewska & Leah Ruppanner
📄 doi.org/10.1177/2378...
Take a Load Off? Not for Mothers: Gender, Cognitive Labor, and the Limits of Time and Money
By Ana Catalano Weeks, Helen Kowalewska & Leah Ruppanner
📄 doi.org/10.1177/2378...
Even highly educated, high-earning mothers carry an invisible cognitive burden that limits gender equality at home & work.
What can we do? Awareness is part of the solution, but also policies that enable men to take on more caring work, like well-paid parental leave for both moms and dads.
What can we do? Awareness is part of the solution, but also policies that enable men to take on more caring work, like well-paid parental leave for both moms and dads.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Even highly educated, high-earning mothers carry an invisible cognitive burden that limits gender equality at home & work.
What can we do? Awareness is part of the solution, but also policies that enable men to take on more caring work, like well-paid parental leave for both moms and dads.
What can we do? Awareness is part of the solution, but also policies that enable men to take on more caring work, like well-paid parental leave for both moms and dads.
These results can help explain the stalled gender revolution.
Women have achieved high rates of education and workforce participation. Men’s participation in household work, especially the mental load, has not kept pace.
The hidden mental work of family life remains mostly on women's shoulders.
Women have achieved high rates of education and workforce participation. Men’s participation in household work, especially the mental load, has not kept pace.
The hidden mental work of family life remains mostly on women's shoulders.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
These results can help explain the stalled gender revolution.
Women have achieved high rates of education and workforce participation. Men’s participation in household work, especially the mental load, has not kept pace.
The hidden mental work of family life remains mostly on women's shoulders.
Women have achieved high rates of education and workforce participation. Men’s participation in household work, especially the mental load, has not kept pace.
The hidden mental work of family life remains mostly on women's shoulders.
For fathers, these patterns differ.
For men, employment reduces both physical and mental household work...
but high income fathers report doing *more* of the mental load at home.
That’s encouraging: as norms of involved fatherhood grow & as jobs become more flexible, men are stepping up at home.
For men, employment reduces both physical and mental household work...
but high income fathers report doing *more* of the mental load at home.
That’s encouraging: as norms of involved fatherhood grow & as jobs become more flexible, men are stepping up at home.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
For fathers, these patterns differ.
For men, employment reduces both physical and mental household work...
but high income fathers report doing *more* of the mental load at home.
That’s encouraging: as norms of involved fatherhood grow & as jobs become more flexible, men are stepping up at home.
For men, employment reduces both physical and mental household work...
but high income fathers report doing *more* of the mental load at home.
That’s encouraging: as norms of involved fatherhood grow & as jobs become more flexible, men are stepping up at home.
Using original survey data from 2,133 partnered, heterosexual U.S. parents, we compare the predictors of physical vs cognitive labor. We find that:
➡️ Employment and earnings reduce women’s physical household labor.
❌ But they don’t move women’s mental load.
➡️ Employment and earnings reduce women’s physical household labor.
❌ But they don’t move women’s mental load.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Using original survey data from 2,133 partnered, heterosexual U.S. parents, we compare the predictors of physical vs cognitive labor. We find that:
➡️ Employment and earnings reduce women’s physical household labor.
❌ But they don’t move women’s mental load.
➡️ Employment and earnings reduce women’s physical household labor.
❌ But they don’t move women’s mental load.
So while time and money shape the gender division of physical household work, we do not expect these factors to influence mental load in the same way.
We argue that this cognitive work sticks to women, regardless of their resources or status.
We argue that this cognitive work sticks to women, regardless of their resources or status.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
So while time and money shape the gender division of physical household work, we do not expect these factors to influence mental load in the same way.
We argue that this cognitive work sticks to women, regardless of their resources or status.
We argue that this cognitive work sticks to women, regardless of their resources or status.
It is also not bound by time or space in the way that physical household work is. It's always ongoing, in the back of one's mind, throughout the day.
This means that time constraints do not limit mental work in the same way as they structure the completion of physical tasks.
This means that time constraints do not limit mental work in the same way as they structure the completion of physical tasks.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
It is also not bound by time or space in the way that physical household work is. It's always ongoing, in the back of one's mind, throughout the day.
This means that time constraints do not limit mental work in the same way as they structure the completion of physical tasks.
This means that time constraints do not limit mental work in the same way as they structure the completion of physical tasks.
We argue that, like physical household labor, cognitive labor is assigned to women by default.
Yet unlike physical household labor, cognitive labor’s invisibility means it often goes unrecognized & thus is far more resistant to negotiation or bargaining between partners as resources shift.
Yet unlike physical household labor, cognitive labor’s invisibility means it often goes unrecognized & thus is far more resistant to negotiation or bargaining between partners as resources shift.
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
We argue that, like physical household labor, cognitive labor is assigned to women by default.
Yet unlike physical household labor, cognitive labor’s invisibility means it often goes unrecognized & thus is far more resistant to negotiation or bargaining between partners as resources shift.
Yet unlike physical household labor, cognitive labor’s invisibility means it often goes unrecognized & thus is far more resistant to negotiation or bargaining between partners as resources shift.
A large literature tells us that time constraints and financial resources help women reduce their time in physical household labor. They are better able to outsource this work and have more bargaining power at home.
But what about the mental load?
But what about the mental load?
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
A large literature tells us that time constraints and financial resources help women reduce their time in physical household labor. They are better able to outsource this work and have more bargaining power at home.
But what about the mental load?
But what about the mental load?