Krstić Anja, Shen Winny, Varty Christianne T, Lam Janice Y, Hideg Ivona
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Psychol Women Q. 2025 Jun;49(2):205-219. doi: 10.1177/03616843251330284. Epub 2025 Apr 21.
The current research focuses on the gendered work-related impacts of the division of unpaid labor. Drawing upon the literature on gender roles and conservation of resources theory, we argue that women (vs. men) are particularly drained due to undertaking a greater proportion of cognitive labor-a hidden form of unpaid labor involved in managing a household-leading to undermined work outcomes. Data were collected weekly (during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic) for 7 weeks in April to May 2020 ( = 263) and aggregated. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that women (vs. men) reported engaging in a disproportionate amount of cognitive labor in their households, which increased their emotional exhaustion and, in turn, was related to greater turnover intentions and lower career resilience. However, for mothers (vs. fathers), emotional exhaustion and undermined work-related outcomes were driven by disproportionate responsibility for childcare. Hence, division of cognitive labor uniquely affected work-related outcomes of women without children, whereas division of childcare shaped the work-related outcomes of women with children. Overall, this research highlights the differential challenges faced by working women with and without children and the need for gender equity initiatives focusing on both women with and without children.
当前的研究聚焦于无偿劳动分工对工作产生的性别差异影响。借鉴关于性别角色和资源守恒理论的文献，我们认为，女性（相对于男性）尤其疲惫不堪，因为她们承担了更大比例的认知劳动——这是一种管理家庭所涉及的隐性无偿劳动形式，进而导致工作成果受损。在2020年4月至5月的7周时间里（在新冠疫情初期）每周收集数据（样本量=263）并进行汇总。通过多层次结构方程模型，我们发现，女性（相对于男性）报告称在家庭中承担了不成比例的认知劳动，这增加了她们的情绪耗竭，进而与更高的离职意愿和更低的职业恢复力相关。然而，对于母亲（相对于父亲）来说，情绪耗竭和工作相关成果受损是由不成比例的育儿责任所驱动的。因此，认知劳动分工对无子女女性的工作相关成果产生了独特影响，而育儿分工则塑造了有子女女性的工作相关成果。总体而言，这项研究凸显了有子女和无子女职业女性面临的不同挑战，以及针对有子女和无子女女性的性别平等倡议的必要性。
