Thinking about the Baby: Gender and Divisions of Infant Care

This paper discusses the invisible, mental labor that is involved in taking care of a baby and suggests that gender imbalances in this form of baby care play a particular role in reproducing differentiation and stimulating marital tension between mothers and fathers. Using qualitative data from interviews with 50 new mothers and fathers (25 couples), this paper describes three categories of mental baby care and argues that how new parents divide the work of thinking about their babies reflects an accountability to socially constructed and institutionalized differentiation between women and men.