The myth of multi-tasking – and why it hurts women

For many high-achieving and ambitious women, the ability to multi-task was often sold as a recipe for professional success. According to productivity experts and behavioural scientists, multi-tasking isn’t actually something to be celebrated; in fact, it’s a damaging myth that harms women. 

Multi-tasking is a lie. There, we said it. For as long as we can remember, we’ve celebrated the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time as the ultimate badge of honour. At work, many high-achieving ambitious women have been sold the same story: that our ability to multitask and master the art of plate-balancing was a fail-proof path to success. However, according to productivity experts and behavioural scientists, multi-tasking isn’t actually something to be celebrated; in fact, it’s a damaging myth that harms women’s ambitions. 

The idea of multi-tasking first originated in the 1960s, used in reference to a single computer carrying out two or more tasks simultaneously. (You can already see how adapting a concept originally intended for computer functionalities to describe human capabilities is problematic.) Eventually, the concept became adopted in the workplace and lauded as a sign of efficiency and competency. 

This later morphed into gendered tropes of women as “natural multitaskers”, innately and effortlessly able to balance the socially constructed demands of juggling a paid job while running a household and taking care of those around them. It’s a myth that remains perpetuated in popular culture and the media (even backed by questionable research) till recently. After all, how often have we been fed with images of the ‘multi-tasking supermom’, juggling everything from housework and kids’ lunchboxes to organizing social dinners on top of everything else? 

Full story on Uncommon: https://www.heyuncommon.com/blog/multitasking-myth-women