Boys Can Do Everything Girls Can Do
That includes invisible and emotional labor
For years, I told myself a story. The story went something like this: Women are biologically better at invisible and emotional labor. Men, by virtue of their genetic makeup, are more or less hopeless. I told this story to justify the disproportionate amount of behind-the-scenes labor I was taking on around the house.
“It just comes naturally to me,” I told my sister with a what-can-you-do shrug.
To be fair, it was an understandable assumption. I looked around and saw other women like me — strong, smart, feisty, and married to men who loved them for it — and nearly every single one felt backed into the same corner.
Somewhere along the way, we had become household operations managers, along with the dozens of other roles that parents juggle daily. For my part, I had never, not once, considered a career in operations management, as it speaks to neither my passions nor my core strengths. But in my home, I was the one who could recite the grocery list in my head; who knew everyone’s schedule by heart; who created the childcare spreadsheets; who planned playdates, weekend outings, and vacations; who figured out the logistics of getting everyone where they needed to be each day.
