When we talk about productivity in the workplace, one of the key aspects often overlooked is invisible labor. The global share of women in the workplace increased from 44.03% to 46.36% between 2000 and 2024, and research consistently shows that it is women who are responsible for the small, repetitive, and sometimes emotionally demanding efforts that keep a workplace running smoothly.
Over time, these tasks add up and occupy a sizable portion of an average woman’s work day, distracting from otherwise rewarding or professionally meaningful activities. Also, more women than men looking after these duties eventually means there’s an inequitable effect on career progression across genders.
Indeed, women make up only 28% of tech roles, and one of the (many) contributing factors is the invisible labor that claims so many of their working hours.
Defining the Challenge of Invisible Labor Before We Can Address It
The term invisible work was first coined by sociologist Arlene Kaplan Daniels in 1986-87 to refer to unpaid work that also goes unrecognized. Daniels explained that tasks like child care, housework, and laundry, as well as emotional labor such as comforting a family member, are overwhelmingly performed by women.
In the US, 71% of mothers primarily buy groceries and prepare meals, compared to just 29% of households where the tasks are usually performed by men or equally split.
At a macro level, invisible labor at home contributes to the economy by supporting paid roles held by others, without directly improving the lives of the women performing these duties. The UN estimates that this invisible labor constitutes anywhere between 10% and 39% of the US GDP.
Expectedly, invisible labor isn’t limited to the household. Most workplaces, especially physical offices, involve many hours of tasks like:
- Organizing office events and parties
- Collecting money and sending gifts to co-workers facing a loss or an illness
- Remembering co-worker birthdays and work anniversaries
- Performing chores like tidying up meeting rooms or making coffee
- Providing emotional support to colleagues
- In remote environments, assembling agendas, meeting notes, and action items
That’s not to say that these tasks shouldn’t exist or cannot be part of a woman’s workday. The challenge is, first, defining and rewarding such labor so that it no longer remains invisible, and second, ensuring equitable distribution of tasks across genders.
The Toll That Invisible Labor Takes on Women
When women take on invisible labor, three things happen. First, their roles in the same designation with the same pay start looking very different from men’s. Joint research by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org showed how women in managerial positions were putting in far more hours towards emotional and invisible labor compared to men.
Second, and not surprisingly, heavier workloads lead to stress and burnout for many women managers. In 2021, 42% of women said they were often or almost always burnt out, compared to 35% of men. They were putting in hours on emotional labor even during the evenings, on weekends, and on vacation, but all the while being “taken for granted” with no formal recognition.
Less than 25% of organizations recognize this work during appraisals and performance reviews, making the effort completely “invisible.”
Third, invisible labor makes it harder for women to progress in their selected career trajectory. For instance, 40% of women in managerial roles have considered quitting or downshifting to part-time hours.
As a result, the glass ceiling phenomenon persists, with fewer women at the top than men. In 2024, just 25.1% of senior management or leadership roles were held by women, a trend that has continued for many years now due to systematic challenges like invisible labor.
This is also because invisible labor has a direct effect on a woman’s perceived professional skills. A Human Resource Management paper showed men could advance by being good at their jobs, but women also needed "prosocial orientation." In other words, regular invisible and emotional labor isn’t formally rewarded, yet an average female professional has little chance of getting ahead without it.
How Organizations Can Be Better Allies and Make Productivity Equitable
While I’m fortunate to be working for an organization that prioritizes creative and strategic tasks and has taken every measure to automate whatever can be automated, this shouldn’t be “good luck” in 2025.
80% of companies are deeply invested in their DEI efforts, and 10% are doubling down even further. This means there’s every opportunity to address the challenge of invisible labor head-on—enabling individual career progression and improving collective productivity.
Transparent and specific job descriptions are the first step. Ambiguous titles leave more room to expect or even demand invisible labor, given that women get 44% more requests than men to volunteer for “non-promotable” tasks at work.
Formalizing ancillary tasks (e.g., taking meeting notes) is another measure, as it makes them visible and as worthy of recognition as the primary task (e.g., the meeting itself). Once it’s formalized, it can be made part of an employee’s KRA during reviews so that everyone—men and women alike—are rated on their ability to help out in the workplace without gender bias.
Finally, several of the tasks assigned to women after work hours could be easily automated. For example, you could employ an AI note-taker that listens in on meetings and sends a Slack summary to everyone on the call without a man or woman having to step in, which is exactly what we do at Gmelius.
Closing Thoughts
Fundamentally, however, invisible labor remains a systemic challenge that needs to be addressed through mindset shifts, a change in what we expect from men in the workplace, and abandoning stereotypes of women as natural caregivers.
In the last few years, women's representation in he workplace has increased, and the wage gap has declined, if marginally. Invisible labor should be next on the agenda.
Visit gmelius.com to explore how we use AI and automation to help users reclaim their work day.
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