What if the biggest barrier to gender equality isn't who does the dishes, but who has to remember the dishes need doing?

In this episode of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, host Erica Rooney sits down with Allison Daminger, a groundbreaking sociologist and author of What's On Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life. Allison's viral research shines a light on the mental load—the planning, anticipating, and managing of all the things—that disproportionately falls on women.

Join them as they dissect why even in "woke" partnerships with hands-on dads, women's brains never get to turn off. Allison reveals the societal structures and deep-seated norms that keep this imbalance sticky and, crucially, how we can start an honest, constructive conversation to create a more equitable home life.

Inside the Episode:

• Defining the Invisible Labor: The difference between the physical execution of a chore and the taxing mental work of planning and anticipating that precedes it.
• The "Nothing" Response: Erica shares a powerful personal anecdote of asking her husband what he was thinking about, only to receive the one-word answer that perfectly summed up the mental load gap.
• The Next Frontier of Equality: Why sharing the mental load is the final, sticky frontier in achieving true gender parity, even as men do more physical labor than previous generations.
• The Policy Problem: Erica and Allison connect the mental load directly to the lack of paid parental leave in the US, arguing that early exposure to a child's needs is key to long-term equity.
• Superhumans vs. Bumblers: Allison’s favorite part of her research, revealing why women are overwhelmingly perceived as the "superhumans" (naturally organized) and men as the "bumblers" (go-with-the-flow)—and why this is a harmful myth.
• The Truth About Changing Roles: Insights into how the mental load impacts women's career progression, and why couples with higher-earning women still often see the woman carrying the mental burden.
• The Unjudged Reality: A liberating conclusion: it's okay if changing the load is too much work, as long as you're clear-eyed and okay with the current arrangement.

If you've ever felt deeply frustrated by having to manage all the things for your family, this episode will make you feel seen, validated, and equipped to start the conversation you need to have.

🔗 Resources:

• Find Allison Daminger's book, What's On Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life, wherever books are sold.
• Connect with Erica Rooney on LinkedIn.

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