Mental Load

Mental load refers to the mental effort and associated burden of organizing, completing, or delegating different aspects of care work, especially in families. Due to the gendered distribution of work in households and families, women and mothers bear a disproportionate share of this burden. But also in all other areas of society where it is necessary to keep track of small and large care tasks, the mental effort required of care givers is also high. The term mental load is therefore an important instrument for identifying invisible care work and the associated stresses and strains, and thus also to thus also recognizing the mental dimension of care (cf. Cammarata 2020).