Last month we asked 1,000 Grazia readers for their views on Invisible Labour – and the results made depressing reading.
When we asked what they had done around their home, or for their family, in the past week that they felt had been unappreciated, the answers came in thick and fast ranging from ‘The washing up. Always a bowl full of it. I’m sure my fingers are webbed’ to ‘It’s the five minutes spare I have versus the five minutes my husband has. His will be a cup of tea and a phone scroll; mine will be unloading the dishwasher or booking an appointment for the kids.’
Indeed, the impact of children causes the Invisible Labour gap to widen further – and can even lead to relationship problems, as our results reveal…
73% of Grazia readers who live with a partner feel they do more Invisible Labour than their partner. Yet the division of labour doesn’t decrease when both partners are working part time – in those households, 70% still feel they do more.
76% say they organise the joint family calendar, while 54% say they regularly buy presents for their partner’s family on their behalf.
80% believe the Invisible Labour gap increased after they had children.
71% of women have taken more time off work for childcare reasons – for instance, when a child has been ill, or for parents’ evenings. The same number – 71% – organised their child’s last birthday party, while 87% buy most of their children’s clothes.
Most worryingly, this imbalance of labour has caused relationship problems in 62% of Grazia households. 55% feel the current balance of Invisible Labour is having a negative impact on their mental health. This is felt more keenly in households where the reader works part-time but their partner works full time (65%) and in households with children (67%).
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