Gozde Corekcioglu Ishakoglu, Ozyegin University
Unpaid, Unseen, Unequal: A Survey Experiment on Domestic Labor and Mental Load
Abstract
This paper examines whether increasing awareness of the mental load associated with unpaid domestic labor shifts attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding the division of household work. Mental load refers to the invisible cognitive burden of planning, anticipating, and coordinating household and caregiving tasks. I conduct a randomized survey experiment with 2,104 white-collar workers across 11 provinces in Turkey. Participants in the treatment group watch informational videos explaining the concept and gendered distribution of mental load, while the control group receives only a descriptive statistic about cooking responsibilities. The intervention increases willingness to request support in domestic labor by 23 percent relative to the control mean, with more pronounced effects among women and substantive effects among men. Treatment also leads to greater recognition of under-appreciation and housework-related conflict but leaves implicit gender attitudes unchanged. These findings highlight the role of informational frictions in the persistence of unequal household labor allocation.
Gozde Corekcioglu Ishakoglu is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Ozyegin University and a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the European University Institute in January 2019.
She is an applied economist interested in how Culture affects Economic outcomes, questions related to Gender Inequality, and Political Economy. Her recent work focuses on transforming workplace climate, and female leadership in organizations.
You can read more about Gozde Corekcioglu Ishakoglu here
CEBI contact: Miriam Wüst