New 'Mankeeping' Scale Links Women’s Emotional Labor to Burnout and Traditional Gender Views

Key points

• Researchers developed the Mankeeping Scale to measure the effort women exert to compensate for their male partners' shrinking friendships, including organizing social events and providing emotional support.
• The study involved 402 women in the US and 395 in the UK, confirming the scale's reliability across both populations.
• Higher mankeeping scores were strongly associated with lower relationship satisfaction, higher relationship burden, and increased depression, anxiety, and stress.
• Women with more traditional views of gender roles reported engaging in more mankeeping behaviors.
• An 18-item brief version of the scale was created for easier use in research and clinical settings.

Background

The concept of mankeeping builds on earlier sociological research into 'kinkeeping,' the invisible work women do to maintain family connections. It also aligns with recent public health data showing that men face greater social isolation than women across their adult lives. A 2024 paper by Angelica P. Ferrara and Dylan P. Vergara first theorized mankeeping, suggesting that men's declining friendships shift a heavy social burden onto female partners. This study provides the first validated tool to measure this dynamic.

Why it matters

The findings highlight a significant, often unacknowledged source of emotional labor that can negatively impact women's mental health and relationship satisfaction. By providing a validated measurement tool, the research enables further studies to explore the long-term effects of mankeeping and develop interventions to promote more equitable distribution of social and emotional responsibilities in romantic relationships.

What to watch

Researchers plan longitudinal studies to track how mankeeping unfolds over time and to include male partners' perspectives. They also aim to develop interventions to improve relationship quality and test the scale in non-Western cultures to assess its broader applicability.