Tackling the Mental Load of Women’s Second Job

In a Mother’s Day special for The Edge, BCG’s Nurlin Salleh writes about the second, full-time job many women have – at home. The most challenging part about this second job is not the workload, or its constantly-on-call emergencies – it is the mental strain from the home management load which often falls disproportionately on women. Planning, orchestration, and project management is a full-time job and being the person ultimately responsible for all of this at home can take a toll on women, limiting their ability to focus on their careers and take on leadership roles.

Nurlin suggests, “What needs to change is the delegation of work, which would result in a shift in the workload. This change matters because it is firstly a story of personal development. Men are far more likely to have the freedom to stay late at the office, travel for work, or enjoy informal evening meetings with colleagues or clients. These realities all add up to opportunities.”