Invisible labor

Last updated

Invisible labor is a philosophical, sociological, and economic concept applying to work that is unseen, unvalued or undervalued, and often discounted as not important, despite its essential role in supporting the functioning of workplaces, families, teams, and organizations. [1] The term was coined by Arlene Kaplan Daniels in the 1980s. [2] [3]

The term has been applied to academics, [4] scientists, [5] interpreters, [6] wait staff, [7] secretaries, [8] and women in the household, [9] who bear most of the invisible labor in terms of cleaning, planning, and organizing. [9] [10] Even when women are equally employed, they still are responsible for the majority of invisible labor, including cognitive labor. [11] [12]

Invisible labor has a toll on the mental, physical, and psychological well-being of those who perform it, [13] and it reflects ongoing power dynamics and gender imbalances between those whose work 'counts' and those whose work remains 'unseen.' [14] [15] Invisible labor also falls disproportionately on marginalized groups as a factor of race or other identity characteristics, [16] [17] [18] to the point it has been referred to as "cultural taxation." [19]

Strategies for addressing invisible labor include acknowledgement and increasing visibility, distributing tasks more equally, implementing policies that recognize or reduce such work, challenging disparate gender and racial roles, and assigning economic value to unpaid labor. [20] [21] [22] [23]

The concept continues to influence public discourse through books and movies. [24] Technology has not reduced invisible labor, despite expectations or promises that it would. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glass ceiling</span> Obstacles keeping a population from achievement

A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to people of marginalized genders, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents an oppressed demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. The metaphor was first used by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. It was coined by Marilyn Loden during a speech in 1978.

Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their personas during interactions with customers, co-workers, clients, and managers. This includes analysis and decision-making in terms of the expression of emotion, whether actually felt or not, as well as its opposite: the suppression of emotions that are felt but not expressed. This is done so as to produce a certain feeling in the customer or client that will allow the company or organization to succeed.

Feminization of poverty refers to a trend of increasing inequality in living standards between men and women due to the widening gender gap in poverty. This phenomenon largely links to how women and children are disproportionately represented within the lower socioeconomic status community in comparison to men within the same socioeconomic status. Causes of the feminization of poverty include the structure of family and household, employment, sexual violence, education, climate change, "femonomics" and health. The traditional stereotypes of women remain embedded in many cultures restricting income opportunities and community involvement for many women. Matched with a low foundation income, this can manifest to a cycle of poverty and thus an inter-generational issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double burden</span> Workload of people who both earn money and have significant domestic responsibilities

A double burden is the workload of people who work to earn money, but who are also responsible for significant amounts of unpaid domestic labor. This phenomenon is also known as the Second Shift as in Arlie Hochschild's book of the same name. In couples where both partners have paid jobs, women often spend significantly more time than men on household chores and caring work, such as childrearing or caring for sick family members. This outcome is determined in large part by traditional gender roles that have been accepted by society over time. Labor market constraints also play a role in determining who does the bulk of unpaid work.

The gender pay gap in the United States is a measure comparing the earnings of men and women in the workforce. The average female annual earnings is around 80% of the average male's. When variables such as hours worked, occupations chosen, and education and job experience are controlled for, the gap diminishes with females earning 95% as much as males. The exact figure varies because different organizations use different methodologies to calculate the gap. The gap varies depending on industry and is influenced by factors such as race and age. The causes of the gender pay gap are debated, but popular explanations include the "motherhood penalty," hours worked, occupation chosen, willingness to negotiate salary, and gender bias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machismo</span> Pride in exaggerated masculinity

Machismo is the sense of being "manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as having pride in one's masculinity. While the term is associated with "a man's responsibility to provide for, protect, and defend his family", machismo is strongly and consistently associated with dominance, aggression, grandstanding, and an inability to nurture. The correlation to machismo is found to be deeply rooted in family dynamics and culture.

Microaggression is a term used for commonplace verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders. The term was coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied to the casual disparagement of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT people, poor people, and disabled people. Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership". The persons making the comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words.

Occupational segregation is the distribution of workers across and within occupations, based upon demographic characteristics, most often gender. Other types of occupational segregation include racial and ethnicity segregation, and sexual orientation segregation. These demographic characteristics often intersect. While a job refers to an actual position in a firm or industry, an occupation represents a group of similar jobs that require similar skill requirements and duties. Many occupations are segregated within themselves because of the differing jobs, but this is difficult to detect in terms of occupational data. Occupational segregation compares different groups and their occupations within the context of the entire labor force. The value or prestige of the jobs are typically not factored into the measurements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational stress</span> Tensions related to work

Occupational stress is psychological stress related to one's job. Occupational stress refers to a chronic condition. Occupational stress can be managed by understanding what the stressful conditions at work are and taking steps to remediate those conditions. Occupational stress can occur when workers do not feel supported by supervisors or coworkers, feel as if they have little control over the work they perform, or find that their efforts on the job are incommensurate with the job's rewards. Occupational stress is a concern for both employees and employers because stressful job conditions are related to employees' emotional well-being, physical health, and job performance. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization conducted a study. The results showed that exposure to long working hours, operates through increased psycho-social occupational stress. It is the occupational risk factor with the largest attributable burden of disease, according to these official estimates causing an estimated 745,000 workers to die from ischemic heart disease and stroke events in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unpaid work</span> Labor that does not receive any direct remuneration

Unpaid labor or unpaid work is defined as labor or work that does not receive any direct remuneration. This is a form of non-market work which can fall into one of two categories: (1) unpaid work that is placed within the production boundary of the System of National Accounts (SNA), such as gross domestic product (GDP); and (2) unpaid work that falls outside of the production boundary, such as domestic labor that occurs inside households for their consumption. Unpaid labor is visible in many forms and is not limited to activities within a household. Other types of unpaid labor activities include volunteering as a form of charity work and interning as a form of unpaid employment. In a lot of countries, unpaid domestic work in the household is typically performed by women, due to gender inequality and gender norms, which can result in high-stress levels in women attempting to balance unpaid work and paid employment. In poorer countries, this work is sometimes performed by children.

Sexual division of labour (SDL) is the delegation of different tasks between the male and female members of a species. Among human hunter-gatherer societies, males and females are responsible for the acquisition of different types of foods and shared them with each other for a mutual or familial benefit. In some species, males and females eat slightly different foods, while in other species, males and females will routinely share food; but only in humans are these two attributes combined. The few remaining hunter-gatherer populations in the world serve as evolutionary models that can help explain the origin of the sexual division of labour. Many studies on the sexual division of labour have been conducted on hunter-gatherer populations, such as the Hadza, a hunter-gatherer population of Tanzania. In modern day society, sex differences in occupation is seen across cultures, with the tendency that men do technical work and women tend to do work related to care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Care work</span> Type of employment based on affection rather than immediate pecuniary reward

Care work includes all tasks directly involving the care of others. The majority of care work is provided without any expectation of immediate pecuniary reward. Instead, it is undertaken out of affection, social norms or a sense of responsibility for others. It can also be a form of paid employment.

In psychology, sociology and gender studies, "doing gender" is the idea that gender, rather than being an innate quality of individuals, is a social construct that actively surfaces in everyday human interaction. This term was used by Candace West and Don Zimmerman in their article "Doing Gender", published in 1987 in Gender and Society. According to this paper, an individual's performance of gender is intended to construct gendered behavior as naturally occurring. This façade furthers a system through which individuals are judged in terms of their failure or success to meet gendered societal expectations, called the accountability structure. The concept of doing gender was later expanded in the book Doing Gender, Doing Difference, edited by Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West.

In sociology, intragroup conflict refers to conflict between two or more members of the same group or team. In the years leading up to 2008, intragroup conflict has received a large amount of attention in conflict and group dynamics literature. This increase in interest in studying intragroup conflict may be a natural corollary of the ubiquitous use of work groups and work teams across all levels of organizations, including decision-making task forces, project groups, or production teams. Jehn identified two main types of intragroup conflict: task conflict and relationship conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender pay gap</span> Average difference in remuneration amounts between men and women

The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay gap: non-adjusted versus adjusted pay gap. The latter typically takes into account differences in hours worked, occupations chosen, education and job experience. In other words, the adjusted values represent how much women and men make for the same work, while the non-adjusted values represent how much the average man and woman make in total. In the United States, for example, the non-adjusted average woman's annual salary is 79–83% of the average man's salary, compared to 95–99% for the adjusted average salary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelly Grabe</span> Social psychologist

Shelly Grabe is a professor in social psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has affiliations with women's studies and Latin American and Latino studies. Her research involves women's human rights and globalization and the international attention given to women's empowerment.

Homosocialization or LGBT socialization is the process by which LGBTQ people meet, relate and become integrated in the LGBT community, especially with people of the same sexual orientation and gender identity, helping to build their own identity as well.

An empathy gap, sometimes referred to as an empathy bias, is a breakdown or reduction in empathy where it might otherwise be expected to occur. Empathy gaps may occur due to a failure in the process of empathizing or as a consequence of stable personality characteristics, and may reflect either a lack of ability or motivation to empathize.

Campus climate refers to current dimensions of climate in the campus community in higher education institutions. According to one definition offered by Jeni Hart and Jennifer Fellabaum, the dimensions of climate could refer to views, attitudes, psychology, behaviors, standards, perceptions and expectations. Campus community could refer to employees such as faculty, staff, administrators, and students, individually or as a group. Campus climate is often contrasted with campus culture. While climate and culture are sometimes used interchangeably, some authors mention overlaps while others define clear boundaries between the two.

Cognitive labor is sociological and feminist concept referring to the invisible mental work many women do in relationships and families. It is related to invisible labor, emotional labor, and unpaid work while emphasizing the cost of planning, organizing, scheduling, managing and worrying, in addition to "executing." The distribution of cognitive labor falls disproportionately on women. Handling the majority of cognitive labor is a burden that prevents women from pursuing opportunities or achieving greater health and happiness. A recommendation for balancing cognitive labor is making it more explicit and visible.

References

  1. ↑ Anderson, Emily Hodgson (2022-04-16). "Invisible Labor, Invisible Hands". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  2. ↑ Hatton, Erin (April 2017). "Mechanisms of invisibility: rethinking the concept of invisible work". Work, Employment and Society. 31 (2): 336–351. doi:10.1177/0950017016674894. ISSN   0950-0170.
  3. ↑ Daniels, Arlene Kaplan (December 1987). "Invisible Work". Social Problems. 34 (5): 403–415. doi:10.2307/800538.
  4. ↑ Gordon, Hava Rachel; Willink, Kate; Hunter, Keeley (June 2024). "Invisible labor and the associate professor: Identity and workload inequity". Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 17 (3): 285–296. doi:10.1037/dhe0000414. ISSN   1938-8934.
  5. ↑ Bangham, Jenny; Chacko, Xan; Kaplan, Judith, eds. (2022). Invisible labour in modern science. Global epistemics. Lanham Boulder New York London: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   978-1-5381-5995-8.
  6. ↑ Kunreuther, Laura; Rao, Sonya (2023-10-23). "The Invisible Labor and Ethics of Interpreting". Annual Review of Anthropology. 52 (1): 239–256. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-052721-091752. ISSN   0084-6570.
  7. ↑ Crain, Marion G.; Poster, Winifred Rebecca; Cherry, Miriam A. (2016). Invisible labor: hidden work in the contemporary world. Oakland (Calif.): University of California press. ISBN   978-0-520-28640-5.
  8. ↑ Wichroski, Mary (March 1994). "The Secretary: Invisible Labor in the Workworld of Women". Human Organization. 53 (1): 33–41. doi:10.17730/humo.53.1.a1205g53j7334631. ISSN   0018-7259.
  9. 1 2 Ciciolla, Lucia; Luthar, Suniya S. (October 2019). "Invisible Household Labor and Ramifications for Adjustment: Mothers as Captains of Households". Sex Roles. 81 (7–8): 467–486. doi:10.1007/s11199-018-1001-x. ISSN   0360-0025. PMC   8223758 . PMID   34177072.
  10. ↑ Kaplan, Amit (December 2022). ""Just Let it Pass by and it Will Fall on Some Woman": Invisible Work in the Labor Market". Gender & Society. 36 (6): 838–868. doi:10.1177/08912432221128544. ISSN   0891-2432.
  11. ↑ Piñon, Natasha (2020-09-11). "Invisible labor is real, and it hurts: What you need to know". Mashable. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  12. ↑ Daminger, Allison (August 2019). "The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor". American Sociological Review. 84 (4): 609–633. doi:10.1177/0003122419859007. ISSN   0003-1224.
  13. ↑ D’Ardenne, Kimberlee. "Invisible labor can negatively impact well-being in mothers". ASU News. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  14. ↑ Kalita, S. Mitra (2023-09-26). "How to End the Unfairness of Invisible Work". Time. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  15. ↑ Rodsky, Eve. "5 Things to Know About Invisible Labor". Optum (Interview). Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  16. ↑ Flaherty, Colleen. "Undue Burden". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  17. ↑ Gordon, Hava Rachel; Willink, Kate; Hunter, Keeley (June 2024). "Invisible labor and the associate professor: Identity and workload inequity". Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 17 (3): 285–296. doi:10.1037/dhe0000414. ISSN   1938-8934.
  18. ↑ "The Burden of Invisible Work in Academia: Social Inequalities and Time Use in Five University Departments". Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. 39: 228–245. 2017. ISSN   0160-4341.
  19. ↑ Brahm, Nikki (2023-04-18). "Invisible Labor". Insight Into Diversity. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  20. ↑ "What 'Invisible Work' Looks Like in the 21st Century | Psychology Today". www.psychologytoday.com. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  21. ↑ "Reducing and Redistributing Unpaid Work: Stronger Policies to Support Gender Equality". IMF. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  22. ↑ Howard, Jeffrey. "Breaking Gender Stereotypes: Encouraging Participation in Non-Traditional Roles". www.inclusionhub.com. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  23. ↑ "Gender equality and inclusive growth: Economic policies to achieve sustainable development". UN Women – Headquarters. 2022-07-28. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  24. ↑ Winkelman, Natalia (July 7, 2022). "'Fair Play' Review: Casting a Floodlight on Invisible Labor". New York Times . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  25. ↑ Hester, Helen; Srnicek, Nick (2023). After work: a history of the home and the fight for free time. London ; New York: Verso. ISBN   978-1-78663-309-5.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.