A professor is in her office when she hears a knock on her door. One of her students enters in tears and asks, “Could I get your help with something?”
This is just one example of the “invisible labor” women do in the workplace, and Women’s Center director Lysa Salsbury said it often goes unnoticed.
“Women get burned out from that emotional labor,” Salsbury said. “Many of us are subject to the second shift or to the colleague knocking on our door. It’s not rewarded with a pay increase or promotion, yet it takes up many of the hours we work.”
This is the subject of the sixth annual Women’s Leadership Conference at the University of Idaho. The conference is a collaboration between the Women’s Center, Athena and Professional Development and Learning. It’s an event that hosts panels, workshops, speakers and networking socials for all women in higher education, including students, staff and faculty.
Salsbury said the inspiration for this years’ conference topic came in fall 2015. Athena hosted a Conversations of Care event, where professional women discussed their emotional labor in the workplace.
“We concluded that many professional women do a lot of emotional care work for students, colleagues and coworkers that’s not really a part of their formal job description,” Salsbury said. “It’s a gendered thing, where women are doing a disproportionate amount of the work.”
Salsbury said emotional work often comes naturally to women because of the way they are socialized with the perception of being more caring and nurturing. She said the work can go unnoticed due to society’s definition of the words “success” and “productivity.”
“We have the same expectations as anyone else in terms of productivity, progress and success defined by our job descriptions,” Salsbury said. “But the time we have to fulfill those expectations are greatly decreased due to our time spent doing emotional care work. It can be emotionally and mentally taxing, presenting barriers in addressing other parts of our jobs.”
This concept has not only been verified by researchers, but by Salsbury’s fellow female colleagues and coworkers as well, she said. When she and a couple of her colleagues did presentations on the issue at the National Women’s Studies Association, Salsbury said both sessions filled the auditorium.
“It was something that resonated very strongly with every woman we talked to,” Salsbury said.
The title of the conference is “Leaned on while Leaning in.” Salsbury said the inspiration for this title came from reading the book “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook.
“While the book was hailed as a triumph for women in the workplace, many of us thought, ‘Wait, there’s a lot of things potentially harmful by the way success and productivity are measured,’” Salsbury said. “Maybe rather than ‘leaning in’ we should ‘lean out’ and redefine those so-called indicators of success.”
Salsbury said the conference is not focused on placing blame or posing observations. Rather, she said the speakers and workshops will focus on challenging current workplace expectations, redefining success and productivity and how women can care for themselves while caring for others.
Salsbury said 330 people have already registered for the conference, and it filled up much quicker than recent years. The event is free for all those who register.
“I think it’s important to provide local, professional development opportunities for women in the Palouse, especially for those who hold lower positions and don’t have the availability or finances to travel to conferences,” Salsbury said. “Our main goal is to keep it accessible and available.”
Donna King is the conference’s keynote speaker, an active feminist teacher, scholar and author from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Her talk will center around the implications of the competing types of stories often presented to women — striving professionally and care-taking.
Speakers at the conference also include professors, leaders and faculty members from UI, Washington State University and Lewis-Clark State College. The conference will take place all day March 30 in the Moscow Best Western.
Taryn Hadfield can be reached at [email protected]