A new psychological study has introduced a tool to measure the unpaid social and emotional labor many women perform to maintain their male partners’ social lives. The research, published in the journal Sex Roles, links this work to poorer mental health and lower relationship satisfaction.
The researchers focus on a concept called mankeeping, which describes how women step in to compensate for men’s shrinking friendship networks. This can include arranging social activities, prompting men to stay in touch with friends, and acting as a primary source of emotional support.
Mankeeping builds on earlier sociological ideas about invisible labor, including the 1985 concept of kinkeeping, which examined how women often manage family ties. At the same time, recent data shows men across many countries report fewer close friendships and higher levels of social isolation than women.
Study authors argue that these trends interact in ways that place a heavy, often unreciprocated burden on women in heterosexual relationships. When men’s social circles contract, their partners may feel compelled to shield them and the relationship from the effects of loneliness.
How the mankeeping scale works
To turn this idea into something measurable, researchers developed a survey they call the Mankeeping Scale – Partner Report. They first tested it on 402 women in the United States who had been in heterosexual relationships for at least six months.
Participants rated 62 draft survey items on a seven-point scale and completed established measures of depression, anxiety, stress, relationship burden, burnout, and satisfaction. Statistical analysis then grouped related questions together, producing a 46-item scale.
The final scale covers six categories, including concrete behaviors used to manage a partner’s social life and the emotional consequences of that work. Other dimensions capture how women view their partners’ social networks, their desire for partners to have more friends, and the extent of emotional dependence.
Higher mankeeping scores were strongly associated with lower relationship satisfaction and higher feelings of burden and burnout. Five of the six dimensions also correlated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among women.
Key findings on mental health
The study suggests that it is not merely noticing a lack of friends that harms women’s well-being. Instead, the psychological toll appears tied to the ongoing behaviors of managing a partner’s social life and the emotional fallout of that responsibility.
Women who reported more mankeeping also tended to endorse more traditional gender role beliefs. This pattern supports earlier research showing that cultural expectations often place women in caregiver roles within romantic relationships.
Experts say the new tool will help researchers move beyond anecdotes and social media discussions about emotional labor. With a validated scale, future work can more accurately test how these dynamics influence mental health, relationship stability, and men’s own social outcomes.
At the same time, the authors caution that their findings describe broad population trends rather than every individual couple. Some partners may willingly take on this labor, or do so temporarily during life transitions or mental health challenges.
Testing across countries and next steps
To check whether the scale functioned similarly in different contexts, the team gave the 46-item survey to 395 cisgender women in the United Kingdom. Statistical tests showed the same six-factor structure fit both US and UK samples, supporting cross-country consistency.
Because a 46-item tool can be lengthy for clinics or large studies, researchers combined data from 797 women across both countries to build a shorter version. They selected three of the strongest items from each category, creating an 18-item brief scale.
The shorter measure retained high reliability and showed similar links with relationship satisfaction and psychological distress. This makes it more practical for use in future research or potential therapeutic settings where time is limited.
Outside experts describe the scale as an important contribution to feminist scholarship on emotional labor. By naming and quantifying specific behaviors, the measure may clarify how gender norms shape relationship expectations and mental health outcomes.
The authors note several limitations, including reliance on women’s self-reports and a single point in time. They plan longitudinal studies that follow couples over years and aim to capture men’s perspectives to see how they understand and experience this social labor.
Researchers also emphasize that loneliness is a wider public health issue that affects all genders. They argue that interventions should not simply shift responsibility back onto women, but instead encourage more balanced, mutual support within relationships and beyond.
