“Mankeeping” takes a toll on women’s mental health and relationship satisfaction, study suggests

A new study examines the mental health and relationship satisfaction of women who engage in "mankeeping," the emotional labor women perform to maintain their romantic partners' social lives. The research, published in the journal Sex Roles, introduces a survey to measure the impact of this unpaid work. The term "mankeeping" refers to the efforts women make to compensate for the decline in their male partners' social networks, such as organizing social events, encouraging them to reconnect with friends, and providing emotional support.

This concept is built upon the idea of kinkeeping, which describes the invisible work women often do to keep family members connected. Recent public health data shows that men are facing increasing social isolation, with men reporting greater loneliness than women across most of their adult lives. The study's lead researcher, Vincent Mancini, an adjunct senior research fellow at the UWA Medical School and a senior research fellow at the UWA Centre for Child Health Research, suggests that mankeeping is a common practice among women.

The newly developed Mankeeping Scale – Partner Report aims to quantify the psychological toll of this unreciprocated effort. The survey, which includes questions about the behaviors women perform, the emotional impact, and their appraisal of their partner's social network status, was validated through two groups of women in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The results indicated that higher mankeeping scores correlated with lower relationship satisfaction, increased relationship burden, and higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Interestingly, it was the active behaviors and emotional impact of mankeeping, rather than simply perceiving that a partner lacked friends, that were associated with poorer mental health.