Cognitive Labor: The Exhausting Superpower
Remember when you were a kid and someone would ask you “if you could have any superpower, what would you choose?” Maybe you said super speed, invisibility, the ability to fly, teleportation, X-ray vision - all fantastic answers!
If you’re a woman, chances are you have acquired many of these superpowers without even realizing it (although maybe not the ability to fly, technology has let us down in that category so far.)
Sadly, having these superpowers is not quite as great as we thought when we were kids.
If you think I’m being dramatic and cheesy, I don't blame you. The cognitive labor you do truly embodies your superpowers, but it can also negatively impact your life in sneaky and frustrating ways. We want you to see how this can drain your energy instead of giving you a boost to battle your personal enemies.
Cognitive Labor Superpower #1: Invisibility
As a kid, I always thought it’d be fun to be invisible. Hiding in the background, playing silly tricks, causing a little chaos without anyone knowing.
As an adult, the “power” of being invisible actually hurts us instead of helps us. My brain’s hard work is hiding and there’s plenty of chaos, but none that anybody can see and certainly none that anybody finds humorous.
Your cognitive labor is internal and invisible. It happens inside your brain and does not produce a physical product that anyone but you can see.
Cleaning results in a clean house, cooking results in a fed and healthy family, grocery shopping results in a full pantry. In other words, visible outcomes.
Cognitive labor is required to achieve all of these physical outcomes (ie anticipating needs for cleaning supplies, meal planning, and creating grocery lists). It’s the part that nobody watches you do, but is absolutely essential for any of these things to be done.
Even worse, sometimes cognitive labor doesn’t result in physical outcomes at all and exists eternally in your head. It’s all the thinking work that goes into decisions about parenting or ensuring everyone’s emotional needs are met at all times. Again, the burden that women carry. [1]
Being invisible isn’t that fun after all.
Cognitive Labor Superpower #2: Teleportation
Now this is a fun one. The power of being anywhere, at any time, with the snap of your fingers.
Your cognitive labor does that for you too! But it’s far less fun.
Cognitive labor follows you anywhere and everywhere - in the car, during your workout, while you’re trying to meditate, in a work meeting, even when you're supposed to be sleeping. With the snap of your fingers, it’s right there in your thoughts, whether you wanted it or not.
Contrast this idea with physical labor. Cleaning, cooking, and laundry all have to be done within your home. They are naturally bound by the space and time you are at home.
Cognitive labor knows no bounds for time or space. You can think, plan, worry, and strategize anywhere.
Women experience greater amounts of stress and anxiety when there is less time to focus on one particular task at a particular time. [2] The intrusion of cognitive labor on our daily routines is stressing us out and making us less productive.
Studies also show that women's sleep and leisure time is interrupted significantly more frequently than men's [5]. Cue that nagging thought cycle of meal planning or the interruption of a toddler asking for a snack just when you got into that vinyasa flow.
So I guess teleportation isn’t that fun either.
Cognitive Labor Superpower #3: X-ray Vision
How cool would it be to see the world with X-ray vision? To see all the details, secrets, and hidden dangers around you?
Well your cognitive labor already does that everyday (albeit without the power to actually see through walls)!
You are constantly anticipating the needs of those around you, predicting what problems you may face in any given week, and protecting your family from physical or emotional danger.
This is an aspect of cognitive labor that endures throughout your life because there simply will never be a time you will stop caring about your loved ones or looking ahead to ensure their health, wellbeing, and happiness. And we know that as women, a disproportionate amount of that responsibility falls on us [4].
Sometimes women are given the suggestion to hire or contract someone to help with completing the labor in their home. Okay, let's try that suggestion. So I can hire a cleaning professional for my kitchen, I can get a babysitter during daytime work hours, I can establish a laundry service - great!
But wait, what about the exhaustive thinking work that ensures my kids make it into college, my partner still feels spice in the romance department, or my parents are taking care of their aging needs?
In reality, that work can NEVER be contracted out because only YOU can see (with your "x-ray vision") the needs of YOUR family. You do this every day, every week, and every year because it's important for your family's future and it simply cannot be given to anyone outside of your family.
It's suddenly a little less cool to be the only one with X-ray vision in your family.
So the superpowers we dreamed of having as kids aren't quite all that they’re cracked up to be in this form.
But cognitive labor still IS your superpower! It's something you have learned to excel in because it's necessary for you and your family. The problem is that you are doing it invisibly, without boundaries, and in all spheres of your life.
Not very fun, right?
We want to put the fun back into your superpower and make your work visible, within its boundaries, and shared among loved ones in your life.
Let us know if you have any ideas for how we can support your superpowers and what we can do to help alleviate the reality of cognitive burden in your life!
[1] Ciciolla, L., & Luthar, S. S. (2019). Invisible Household Labor and Ramifications for Adjustment: Mothers as Captains of Households. Sex Roles, 81(7–8), 467–486. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-1001-x
[2] Ruppanner, L., Tan, X., Scarborough, W., Landivar, L. C., & Collins, C. (2021, February 2). Shifting Inequalities? Parents’ Sleep, Anxiety, and Calm during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia and the United States. Men And Masculinities, 24(1), 181–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x21990737
[3] Maume, D. J., Hewitt, B., & Ruppanner, L. (2018). Gender Equality and Restless Sleep Among Partnered Europeans. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(4), 1040–1058. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12488
[4] Offer, S. (2014, December). The Costs of Thinking About Work and Family: Mental Labor, Work-Family Spillover, and Gender Inequality Among Parents in Dual-Earner Families. Sociological Forum, 29(4), 916–936. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12126
[5] Rodsky, E. (2019). Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live). Random House Large Print.
