I need to go to the dry cleaners to pick up my dress for the work function on Friday. I’ll pass by the grocery store on the way so I should pick up ingredients for the kids’ lunches while I’m there. Need to remember that the youngest decided he doesn’t like strawberries anymore, so I’ll have to find another fruit for him, and the doctor recommended a low sodium diet for my husband, so I’ll need to navigate around that. Before I can go to the work function on Friday, I’ll have to make sure the oil is changed in the car, so it doesn’t break down on the way. I also have to finish the report before then, so I’ll have to work late this week. Can’t do it on Wednesday because the oldest has soccer practice. My sister just had that operation so I should call her while I’m driving. Also, I have to… Can’t forget… Need to find time…
For so many women, the daily task lists, reminders, emotional labor and mental load that comes with work, caregiving, and household management can feel endless. Trying to juggle the needs of everyone around them – oftentimes disproportionately more than their male counterparts – leads to higher rates of burnout, stress, and mental health challenges. These struggles result in personal repercussions, including loss of sleep, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and a decreased sense of self-worth.
Although many of the negative effects of this all-too-common experience are personal, their impact is not limited to the individual. When the overwhelm and overload hits, the repercussions can disrupt families, workplaces, and communities. The weight of the pressure to do it all crushes not just us, but those around us, those we love, and those who love us.
To address this well-documented and far-reaching phenomenon, AJLI is launching the Every Woman. All Things. initiative. This program envisions a world where women are free from the burden of perfection, mental overload, role strain, and the socially perceived responsibilities of invisible and emotional labor, allowing more space for joy, freedom, and the ability to cultivate an internally driven sense of self. By sharing responsibilities, prioritizing mental well-being, fostering community, and providing support and resources, this initiative seeks to revolutionize the lives of women, equipping them with the tools to thrive.
The mission of Every Woman. All Things. is threefold:
- • Raise Awareness: Illuminate the often-overlooked struggles that women endure daily.
- • Foster Community: create creative network where women can share experiences and resources.
- • Advocate for Change: Champion policies and practices that alleviate the burdens placed on women.
Every Woman. All Things. provides Leagues across The Association with the opportunity to lead cultural and systemic change collectively, as a natural extension of the work we already do – empowering women to lead, fostering community impact, and advocating for policies that support work-life balance, caregiving, and mental well-being.
The Every Woman. All Things. program will focus on four main areas of impact – awareness, education, advocacy, and research within five action areas – women and aging, shared responsibility and mental overload, caregiving, workplace and economic impact, and volunteering as personal agency.
Women and Aging
There are many ways that aging uniquely affects women. Even as we age, women are more likely to be left with caregiving responsibilities and due to many factors within society, are at a higher risk of economic insecurity. Couple that with the fact that women in the US live on average five years longer than men, as we age, women are at an increased risk of social isolation, chronic stress, and poverty.
Our organization naturally addresses some of these factors by its very nature. As one of the few women-led, intergenerational volunteer networks in the world, The Junior League creates organic community and support structures, and our infrastructure allows for sustained engagement across all stages of a woman’s life. With this new initiative, Junior Leagues can more readily focus on further cultivating supports that enable women to age in place, building livable communities, and providing resources that mitigate the risk of financial insecurity for aging women. Our work in this action area will include advocacy to advance policies on women and aging, as well as partnering with AARP to ensure greater access to its tools and systems.
Shared Responsibility and Mental Overload
As we have already established, women carry the bulk of the invisible, unpaid, and emotional labor of their homes, workplaces, and communities, the type of labor that can contribute to a wide array of negative effects on women and those around them. Many Junior League women are professionals, caregivers, community leaders, and volunteers, and even more of them are carrying this weight. Some may even think they’re alone in this struggle.
Through Every Woman. All Things., Junior Leagues can create structured interventions that model and advocate for shared responsibility – both inside and outside the home – by utilizing their already existing frameworks for training, dialogues, and leadership programs.
Additionally, as an international organization, our collective voice offers a powerful, wide-reaching platform through which Leagues can work to reduce stigma and spark cultural change. By owning and elevating this discussion around mental overload, educating Members and other women’s groups, we empower women to speak up and have difficult conversations about their struggles.
AJLI will also be partnering with Mental Health America and the National Alliance on Mental Illness to offer webinars and expert training on dealing with the emotional impacts of mental overload. Through awareness campaigns on social media and beyond, as well as partnerships, and training on navigating these difficult discussions, we can help mitigate the shame and feelings of inadequacy that result from role strain and impact mental health.
Caregiving
In our society (and many others), women are more likely to be the primary caregivers for children, aging parents, spouses, and even extended family. Although this labor is the cornerstone of our society, it is often undervalued, unsupported, unrecognized, and unaccounted for in policy and workplace structures.
Many Junior League women currently find themselves in the ‘caregiver sandwich’ – raising children while also tending to aging parents or family members. As a broad, community-based network, Junior Leagues can pilot community-level caregiving support and advocate for scalable solutions. Because our Members lead careers in many different professional and civic fields, together, we have the power to influence both policy and workplace practices that better support caregivers.
Whether your community needs better policies on paid leave, childcare subsidies, tax credits, or otherwise, Junior League women are up to the task to help build the framework that improves support and creates greater flexibility and freedom for caregivers.
Workplace and Economic Impact
The systemic inequality in the workplace is well-documented – from pay gaps to unpaid leave to lack of advancement, these disparities adversely impact women’s earning capacity and undermine our economic security. In conjunction with caregiving demands and mental load, they create a full-spectrum strain on women’s professional lives.
Because The Junior League trains women for leadership in all settings – nonprofit, corporate, academic, and civic – Junior League women can use their skills and positions to influence workplace policy and amplify the economic value of women’s contributions, both paid and unpaid. With this combination of national reach and local activation, real change is possible at all levels.
