The last release of the HILDA data (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey) covers the years 2001 to 2016. It offers lots of interesting insights into the working of Australian households at a micro level. It is a rich resource for researchers, policy makers and those with an interest in how households work.

With each new release of data, the Melbourne Institute provides a commentary and analysis of various aspects of the data. This year, among other things, they have chosen to look at the division of labour in households – that’s econspeak for who does what around the house.

The analysis is interesting and discusses both attitudes to work – paid and unpaid – as well as the actual amount of time men and women spend on unpaid, household work. The analysis is confined to working age heterosexual couples, and when child care is in question, the group is further limited to those with children under 15.

It is an interesting read and I recommend it to you.

But my issue is a bit subtle. Over recent years, the young women in my life have alerted me to an aspect of household relationships which had previously passed me by. They call it the mental load.

For those not aware of this, it describes the myriad small responsibilities and decisions that I’d characterise as management. Things like keeping track of whether things are done – like the laundry, shopping etc, who will be home each night, where everyone needs to be on the weekends and how that will be accommodated, organising the holidays, keeping the social calendar, arranging the birthdays, thinking of others in a more general way. The list goes on. Nearly all of this is invisible. And because it is, it passes people by – I know – I was one of them and I was doing the lifting. But it is a load. It takes energy and time. The responsible person tends not to daydream or read on the way home on PT, no they’re busy planning, checking and making sure stuff happens. [1]

So I wondered, does the HILDA survey ask people about this aspect of household labour? It was a difficult question to answer; not least because the survey is so detailed there are oodles of questions to look through. But I don’t think they do.

I asked them if this was true and if so, had they considered adding this to their survey. I have been waiting for a reply before writing this – but to date – nearly six weeks later – silence. Maybe they think I am mad, or a rabid loony, or maybe they’re just seriously busy considering this question.

But my own research – not at all reliable – from friends and acquaintances, suggests that the person in a household who does this, mostly knows about it and that person is most definitely – on nearly all aspects of the task – the woman. Do people not talk about this? Well some do. One friend told me she’d gone away for nearly a month and left her partner in charge of the household, including the care of their young child. She told me the discussion they had when she got home was very revealing. Her husband now understood the term ‘mental load’. It’s now a few months since that happened – maybe I should go back and check in to see if things have changed?

Am I being picky? Or is this a missing aspect of household labour that should be measured? On the basis that what gets measured gets managed, I’d say yes.

[1] Google ‘mental load’ and you will be inundated with a host of references – from the loony to the academic. It’s worth having a small dip in this sea.