EXPLORING GENDER INEQUALITIES IN MENTAL LOAD: A CROATIAN HOUSEHOLD STUDY ON MENTAL TASKS WITH THE LARGEST GENDER GAP

Abstract

This study investigates gender inequalities in mental labor within Croatian households, examining the complex dynamics of cognitive and emotional labor associated with family responsibilities. Building upon established theoretical perspectives, namely the resource and power perspective and the gender role ideology model, which are typically used to explain gender inequalities in performing physical housework, this study explores their applicability to mental labor. Using data from 1,000 participants in heterosexual relationships in Croatia, this study focuses on mental tasks displaying significant gender gaps: notably related to cleaning, groceries (knowledge and planning), and social family life for women, while tasks related to car maintenance for men.

The results reveal that women do more mental labor and therefore experience a higher mental load, especially concerning daily tasks, due to the frequency and quantity of their responsibilities. Egalitarian upbringing, equal division of household chores in parents’ households, and higher socioeconomic status contribute to women’s reduced mental load. Men experience a lighter mental load for typically men's mental tasks when raised in egalitarian environments, have partners with superior socioeconomic status, and exhibit lower religiosity. Religiosity has no effect on the women's mental labor, but having children does. Unlike the women's model, having children has no effect on men's mental labor, but religiosity does. These gender-specific models explain 10% of the gender-basedvariation in typical women’s task regrading mental labor and 15% in typical men’s task. The research results indicate that the gender role ideology model is more useful in explaining the gender gap in mental load than the resource and power perspective, although neither of them is entirely suitable. We argue that the reason for this lies in the unique nature of mental labor in households, highlighting the need for new theoretical perspectives.Special attention is given to the critique of the resource and power perspective as it may not account for the complexities of power dynamics influenced by ideological, cultural, and gender factors within intimate relationships nor can it encompass emphasizing distinctive characteristics of mental labor compared to physical household labor. This research contributes important insights to the ongoing discourse on gender inequalities, urging a re-evaluation of existing paradigms to foster a more equitable division of mental labor within households.