Originally written for Women in Industrial Design Chicago
To our moms, we love you. Thank you for always supporting us through life and our creativity.
When we talk about Mother’s Day, we often thank our mothers for all the work they do to keep our workplaces, households, and lives running smoothly. However, many of the things we should be thanking the women in our lives often go unnoticed. Our team wants to talk about some of those unthanked things, most notably, emotional and invisible labor.
Emotional labor, coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild in 1983, is when someone suppresses or conjures up particular emotions for the sake and comfort of others. For instance, when a waitress or flight attendant smiles cordially towards customers regardless of their actions, that’s emotional labor at play.
Emotional labor tends to affect people in professions like teaching, child-care, healthcare, and other service-oriented industries. These are professions where women are historically the primary demographic. Even though industrial design is male-dominated, emotional labor is a part of our world too. Just consider the term itself as well; women are constantly being told that they’re too emotional, especially in professional spaces, and that for the comfort of everyone, we need to contain and manage our emotions. Emotional labor is inherently a women’s issue.
Data and graphic from payscale
In a society where women are already paid 82 cents on the dollar compared to men (white women that is, Black, Latina, and Asian women are paid even less), women face not only the responsibilities of their jobs, but also the responsibilities that come up managing their emotions in the workplace, with customers, peers, bosses, and so on.
Admittedly, there is also a fine line between what could be considered emotional labor versus professionalism in the workplace. Some may argue that being cordial to customers is simply part of the job description. We need to be more critical of why that is a job requirement and when it starts to cross a line. Is that emotional labor creeping into harassment territory? Are we asking employees of all genders for the same level of emotional containment and manipulation on the job? As women in industrial design, we often work on male-dominated teams where emotional labor is not usually distributed equally.
“Emotional labor is when someone suppresses or conjures up particular emotions for the sake and comfort of others.”
Graphic from Smart Money Mamas
Another reason that emotional labor is difficult to define because the definition has been expanded and molded to fit modern times. Although Hochschild’s original description is rather specific, others say it should include types of labor such as organizing a household or planning the company holiday party. According to Hochschild, these types of responsibilities are just labor rather than emotional labor. Equally important, this other type of work is sometimes referred to as invisible labor. The term was coined by sociologist Arlene Daniels in 1987, a few years after Horchschild coined her definition of emotional labor.
Invisible labor is defined as work that goes unnoticed, unpaid, and thus unregulated. Generally, women are expected to do this labor, even on top of their professional job, but it is rarely acknowledged. Even at work, “housekeeping” duties are disproportionately assigned to women. Again, women are expected to do this type of labor happily, without compensation or complaint. This reinforces gender stereotypes in the workplace, home, and society.
“Invisible labor is defined as work that goes unnoticed, unpaid, and thus unregulated.”
Check out this Invisible Labor Calculator created by Amy Westervelt, Author of Forget “Having it All.”
It is important to understand what emotional and invisible labor is so we may recognize and correct them. Both can be difficult to pinpoint, and they actually go hand-in-hand. Here are some examples we’ve collected to help you understand and identify emotional labor versus invisible labor, specifically in an industrial design setting.
EMOTIONAL LABOR
Respectfully nodding while your boss makes condescending remarks about your work.
Continuing to smile as a customer makes rude remarks.
Laughing along cheerily as a client gives you unwelcome compliments and advances.
Happily accepting work on women-oriented/mom products, despite other interests, in order to gain exposure.
INVISIBLE LABOR
Being asked to make plans for an office party, on top of your unrelated job duties.
Getting coffee and ordering lunch for the team meeting and then staying to clean up after everyone afterward.
Continuously explaining to coworkers and peers why the gender gap in industrial design is an issue.
Because there’s no true consensus on what exactly fits under the umbrella of emotional labor versus invisible labor, they can be difficult to define. Although it may be important to agree on similar definitions for the sake of clarity in conversations, spending more time focusing on the semantics rather than the issues is a distraction. The larger issue is the system that enables and perpetuates these types of labor that disproportionately affect the women and marginalized groups in our society. Our lack of consensus should not stop us from having the important conversations around emotional labor, invisible labor, and everything in between.
This is a time when allies can become an asset to women in ID. Coworkers, partners, and peers can recognize when the emotional and invisible labor affects women and help redirect that. Volunteer yourself to help do the housekeeping at work, encourage your bosses to distribute work more equitably, and recognize all the work that happens when you’re not looking. One of the best things we can do is thank these women, especially our moms, for their invisible and emotional labor.