Feb 23, 2022
Emotional labor as Regina Lark describes it is the unseen, unnoticed, unwaged, unwritten, and unanticipated work women do at home. Gender inequity is an age-old issue that women still bear the brunt of and Regina joins us today to break down why it is that we are dumped with the job of homemaking, regardless of how our brains are hardwired, and why we feel such a deep sense of shame if we can’t stay on top of the mess! With a doctorate in women’s history and years of experience as a professional organizer, Regina has married her expertise to write Emotional Labor: Why a Woman’s Work Is Never Done and What To Do About It. In our conversation, we learn how Regina’s male and female clients tend to have a different relationship with mess and how same-sex relationships differ from heterosexual relationships in terms of emotional labor. We discuss wages for housework campaigns and homemaking strikes over the course of history, and how the delegation model in the modern home needs to change! Tune in to find out how strategically stopping your household tasks can work to enforce equity in the home and discover a neat tip to measure labor equity and prove what your work is worth!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Introducing Regina Lark and the important work she does in the world! [00:00:33]
- How her Ph.D. in women’s history and experience as a professional organizer prompted her to write Emotional Labor. [00:03:59]
- How ADHD was only diagnosed in men and the impact on ADHD women. [00:08:06]
- Regina’s profound definition of emotional labor and how she landed on it. [00:09:29]
- The different relationships Regina’s male and female clients have with mess. [00:13:22]
- What a professional organizer’s responsibility to the client involves. [00:14:04]
- Who Judith Kolberg is and how she helped Regina in the book-writing process. [00:16:14]
- How the household delegation model needs to change and why. [00:17:31]
- Clare shares how she strategically stopped doing household tasks to enforce equity in her home. [00:18:51]
- How to measure equity in the home and prove what your work is worth! [00:22:12]
- What wages for housework campaigns are and where and when they started. [00:23:53]
- The women’s strike from homemaking and sex in Iceland and the resultant gender equity there today. [00:24:35]
- How same-sex and heterosexual relationships differ in terms of emotional labor. [00:26:45]
- Anticipating changes with the emotional labor lifecycle. [00:28:50]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: