Working women take on the majority of everyday organisation

They plan the shopping, organise the children's birthday party, buy the Christmas presents, call the sick parents-in-law and think about the documents for the tax return: in heterosexual relationships, it is predominantly the women who take care of the organisation of everyday life. This is the conclusion reached by the two sociologists Yvonne Lott and Paula Bünger in a study for the Hans Böckler Foundation's Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI). According to the study, the "probability of planning, organising and thinking about the necessary everyday tasks in the household is 62 per cent for women and only 20 per cent for men". Among women in part-time employment, the probability is higher than among full-time employees, but even among the latter it is 57 per cent. Lott and Bünger asked the questions to around 2,200 people in employment or looking for work in November 2022 as part of the Hans Böckler Foundation's labour force survey. The foundation was established by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) in 1977.

In the context of everyday organisation, the term "mental load" is attracting increasing attention in the public debate. This refers to the thinking, planning, scheduling and organising of necessary everyday tasks and the feeling of having to take care of or be responsible for them. Women often take on this invisible thinking or caring work in addition to their gainful employment. If the burden becomes too great, this can have a negative impact on leisure time, mental health and relationship satisfaction.

The sample on which the findings of the study are based comprises 2255 people, of which 1047 were women and 1208 men. There were 341 mothers among the women and 463 fathers among the men. All respondents were in employment, aged 65 or under and living in the same household as their partner. The first question was: "Who plans, organises and thinks about necessary everyday tasks in your household? (for example, making to-do lists, arranging appointments, remembering appointments)?" The possible answer categories were: "(1) (almost) entirely my*partner*in, (2) mostly my*partner*in, (3) both in roughly equal proportions, (4) mostly me and (5) (almost) entirely me". Those who selected categories 3 to 5 for this question were also asked to comment on the extent to which the cognitive work is stressful. These are exclusively self-assessments.

The perceived burden of cognitive work varies

Women are more likely than men to say that they do most of the cognitive work in the household (62 per cent versus 20 per cent). It is striking that significantly more men (just under 66 per cent) are convinced that both partners take on an equal share of the day-to-day organisation, while only 35 per cent of women make this statement.

The perceived burden of cognitive work is also different for women and men. Women report a higher level of stress from cognitive work than men. On a scale of five, women show an estimated value of 3.3 compared to 2.8 for men. The differences are particularly statistically significant if children live in the household (3.7 versus 2.9). For men, on the other hand, according to the survey, whether they work part-time or full-time and whether they live in households with or without children has no effect on their feeling of stress.

It is "noteworthy that women working part-time feel just as burdened by cognitive work as women working full-time, i.e. they experience mental load regardless of the amount of work they do", the researchers write in their conclusion. It therefore does not appear to be the case that women feel more mental relief in their everyday lives as a result of shorter working hours. "On the contrary: their emotional stress caused by cognitive work is slightly higher when they work part-time than when they work full-time." As mental load is a continuation of the existing unequal distribution of domestic and care work between women and men, Yvonne Lott and Paula Bünger call for measures aimed at dismantling traditional gender arrangements and promoting a more equal division of labour. Above all, line managers and HR managers are called upon to make fathers aware of the company and statutory offers for reconciling work and family life and to support them in taking advantage of them. As the study is based exclusively on the respondents' self-assessments, further research is required to obtain more precise and reliable statements.

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