1 You feel you should be able to cope
Remember the mental load? You’ve probably seen a brilliant illustration of the concept by the French comic artist Emma, which was all over social media recently. Mental load – or cognitive labour – is a term used to describe the web of invisible tasks involved in running a household. Most of which, in heterosexual households, falls to women. From scheduling playdates and replenishing toothpaste to remembering family birthdays and organising holidays, studies show that women do more of these tasks than men, along with the bulk of housework and childcare, too.