You hear the number everywhere: 71%. But what was measured, and what does it not say? A sober look at the research, and what you can do with it.
The number is everywhere: mothers carry 71% of the mental load. It matches what many mothers feel, and that's exactly why it's worth looking at what was actually studied. Then you know what you can and can't take from it.
Researchers at the University of Bath and the University of Melbourne analysed data from 3,000 US parents: what share of the everyday thinking tasks in a household do they usually manage themselves? Think of things like planning meals, arranging activities and keeping track of the finances.1 Here, mental load means the thinking work it takes to keep family life running smoothly: planning, arranging and organising. The study appeared at the end of 2024 in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
The study measures that the split looks this way, not why. A logical reading is this: a task that comes back every day can't be put off and demands constant attention. A repair job or a tax return is a project with a beginning and an end. Whether the nappies are nearly gone, whether something has to go to nursery and who eats what tonight is not.
Sociologist Allison Daminger described the thinking work in four steps: anticipating, identifying options, deciding and monitoring.2 With a daily task you go through those steps again and again. How that works and what has to be handed over is in Sharing the mental load with your partner.
The number isn't a reproach to your partner and not a verdict on your home. It's a reason to look differently, and three questions are enough for that:
Saam is built for exactly those daily tasks. You say it the moment it occurs to you, Saam turns it into a complete task and gives it to whoever has room that day, right in WhatsApp and your calendar.
Take the test: who keeps track of everything?
How much of the mental load do mothers carry?
In a study of 3,000 US parents (University of Bath and University of Melbourne, 2024), mothers said they manage on average 71% of the everyday thinking tasks in a household, fathers 45%. Those percentages add up to more than a hundred because each parent reported their own share.
Does this apply to the Netherlands too?
This study does not say. It was about US parents. So don't simply carry the number over to Dutch families: that takes other data.
Why does the daily work sit mostly with mothers?
The study measures that it does, not why. Mothers said they manage 79% of the daily tasks, fathers 37%. A logical reading is that tasks that come back every day demand constant attention, but that is an interpretation and not a finding of the study.
What can I do with this?
Don't look at the number but at your own home: which tasks come back every day, who notices them, and which area can go to your partner as a whole, including the noticing. The mental load test shows you in two minutes where it sits in your house.