Abstract
How do levels of cognitive household labor -- the "mental load'" involved in anticipating, fulfilling, and monitoring household needs -- affect political interest? The mental load is distinct from the physical tasks of e.g., cooking and cleaning, and thought to be disproportionately undertaken by women. I argue that while low levels of mental load can foster political interest, at high levels the mental (over)load crowds out cognitive space for political issues, especially issues seen to be distant from family life. To test this argument, I field a novel survey on politics and household work to a sample of parents in the United States. I find a large gender gap, with mothers reporting primary responsibility for 71 percent of cognitive household labor, compared to fathers' 45 percent. Low levels of mental load are positively linked to political interest, while high levels of mental load decrease interest in certain issues, including national politics and inflation. I report similar effects for fathers and mothers, but due to the gendered distribution of mental load (mothers carrying more load, on average), negative consequences are more common among mothers. The findings offer new evidence about a gender gap too often hidden, and its consequences for political life.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | European Sociological Review |
| Early online date | 15 Aug 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Aug 2025 |
Data Availability Statement
Replication data for this article can be found in Harvard Dataverse at: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QR51A8.Acknowledgements
I thank Rachel Bernhard, Hilde Coffé, Allison Daminger, Moa Frödin Gruneau, Chris Hanretty, Helen Kowalewska, Alex Kuo, Bonnie M. Meguid, Mona Morgan-Collins, Diana O’Brien, Torben Iversen, Anke Plagnol, Soledad Prillaman, Jaclyn Wong, and participants at research seminars at Durham University, Gothenburg University, the Institute for Public Goods and Policies (IPP-CSIC), Keio University, Lund University, Nuffield College, and the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Oxford University, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Bath, University of Reading, University of Southampton, ECPR joint sessions 2024, APSA annual meeting 2022, EPSA annual meeting 2022, and the UK PSA’s Methodological Conference 2020 for helpful comments on previous versions of this paper. I also thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. I am grateful to the Moms of Camberville 2.0 Facebook group for valuable feedback on survey design, and to the Harvard Digital Lab for the Social Sciences for pilot testing.Funding
This research was supported by the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize, Iowa State University, Bath's Institute for Policy Research, and the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies at the University of Bath.
Keywords
- gender
- political participation
- Household
- gender and politics
- mental capacity
