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Mar 21, 20245 min read

Addressing Gender Inequities in "Office Housework"

Despite workplace diversity initiatives across industries, it’s well-documented that the numbers of women and people of color in leadership roles are disproportionately low, and that turnover rates for women, especially women of color, are higher than they are for men. Yet studies are also showing that these same groups are doing higher amounts of the invisible labor that some refer to as “office housework” - under-recognized and generally unpaid administrative and relational tasks that don’t necessarily contribute to their advancement.


Invisible forms of labor (including cognitive labor, emotional labor, and the mental load) are often accounted for in divisions of labor. These same forms of labor tend to also be overlooked and inequitably assigned to women at work - from the cognitive labor involved in coordinating meeting times to the emotional labor necessitated by mentoring junior colleagues or serving on DEI committees. Disproportionately shouldering the burden of “office housework” can get in the way of opportunities to advance and lead for women and people of color. Let’s take a closer look at office housework so we can make it more visible and equitably distributed in our places of work.




On the job, “invisible work” often manifests as “office housework.”

Did you know that women are 44% more likely than men to be asked to volunteer for time consuming work tasks that have a low likelihood of resulting in a raise or promotion? (Harvard Business Review, 2018).


Women are asked to handle more admin tasks than their male colleagues, like taking notes, making to-do lists, scheduling meetings, picking up refreshments, planning parties, and setting up meeting rooms.


Regardless of rank, studies show that the average woman employee spends 200 more hours per year on non-promotable work than male counterparts - that’s a month’s worth of office housework.


Women also accept these requests more frequently than their male counterparts.


Gender norms no doubt impact this. Directly requesting women employees to volunteer for extra uncompensated labor assumes that they are available, willing, and even eager to help out.


While setting boundaries and saying no are important strategies in these situations, turning down these requests can lead to negative reactions, exclusion, shaming, or other forms of exclusion by colleagues. Women’s women’s perceived congeniality runs deep through conscious and unconscious gender biases. .


Pushing back at office housework requests can be even more precarious for professional women of color due to the intersection of both gender-based and racial stereotypes.


Ruchika Tulshyan asserts that “while all women walk a tightrope between being liked and respected, for women of color, the experience is particularly egregious.”


She states that “the professional women of color I spoke with told me they’ve been characterized as aggressive, out-of-character, or too emotional when they advocate for themselves in the workplace.”


One of her interviewees notes that “as a visibly black woman in the workplace, I am often caught in a double-bind where if I don’t accept the office housework, I’m considered an ‘Angry Black’ woman.”


(Harvard Business Review, 2018)


Emotional Labor


Office housework includes emotional labor, such as mentoring new hires and junior colleagues, soothing colleagues in emotional crises, mitigating complex relations with clients, and keeping up team morale.


Despite the skill involved, women are not often given credit for emotional labor. Marianne Cooper argues that when a woman "provides team members with emotional support during a time of societal crises, it can be overlooked as 'caretaking' instead of ...[seen] as strong crisis management.” (HBR, 2021)


BIPOC women report doing additional emotional labor living under multiple forms of oppression, including masking their own discomfort, especially while making white colleagues feel comfortable.


DEI Work


Women leaders are 2x as likely as men leaders to spend substantial time on DEI work, which is often seen as “softer” work that’s less tied to revenue goals. This work involves a considerable amount of emotional labor.


40% of women leaders say their DEI work isn’t acknowledged at all in performance reviews.


Among women at the manager level and above, Black women, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities are up to twice as likely as women overall to spend a substantial amount of time promoting DEI.


Case Study: Academia


Faculty who are women, especially women of color, report shouldering higher service loads including committee work, event coordination, design work, advising, recruitment, informal mentorship, providing students with information and resources for emotional support and safety, and the additional administrative tasks associated with all of the above.


Yet, this service work is under- or unacknowledged and doesn’t lead to professional advancement or compensation. These high service loads leave many women faculty with less time and energy for research and publication, which is more directly tied to tenure, promotion, and recognition in their scholarly and creative fields.


Disparities in Office Housework Maintain Structural Inequities


Doing an inordinately high amount of office housework comes at the expense of less opportunities, time, and energy for assignments handling more desirable or higher-profile work and/or clients.


Also, this unequal division of labor impacts earnings and advancement, which further contributes to structural imbalances. Many women, especially women, of color, remain in lower positions.


What can employers do?

  • Identify the office housework in your workplace and who is doing it by surveying employees. Ask your workers how much time these tasks take and how frequently they do them. Analyze any inequities in the results and redistribute the work. Coach frequent volunteers to step back.

  • Add identified office housework to your goals or performance review criteria so that those who do this work get credit for it. Find ways to compensate those who do it if possible.

  • Encourage managers to examine their assumptions about who they think is best suited for particular tasks. Keep them accountable for considering all eligible employees for all assignments and balancing the work fairly.

  • Consider having a rotation system for office housework, rather than asking for volunteers or assigning it to the first person who comes to mind. Hold people responsible for their turn.

  • Invest time to train all employees on the skills required to complete office housework tasks. Address performance issues that arise.

  • Lead by example. Use your influence to break exploitative cycles. Advocate for the diverse needs and interests of all women employees - publicly and privately - whenever the opportunity arises.

Strategies for Women Employees

  • Keep a detailed log of your workload, including all the extra tasks you’re doing. Save emails and other records of the work for which you deserve credit.

  • Frame a “no” using the boundaries of the role you were hired for or the needs of other projects for which you’re responsible. Remind requesters that additional commitments outside this work will impact your ability to do it well.

  • Frame a “yes” with an expectation of reciprocity, rotation, and recognition.

  • Negotiate the conditions of your help, asserting the value of your contributions and also the personal and professional costs of accepting the work. Consider if your requested assistance is an opportunity to negotiate your title or receive additional compensation.

  • Listen to, collaborate with, and stand up for your fellow women colleagues.


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