“Women are better multitaskers than men, it’s natural.” Wrong! For years, studies have shown that men and women are not so different when it comes to multitasking. Our brains are typically not equipped to focus on many tasks at one time but society deems women as the better multitaskers — why?
As a young girl, watching my mom fold clothes with a phone tucked under her chin while simultaneously glancing at the afternoon soap opera introduced me to a world where women multitask. From the beginning of time, women are expected to perform: cook, clean, be emotionally available for everyone in her life, take care of herself in between and all while a child sits at her hip. We are the original superheroes. Many say it’s natural and that it is what we have to do to keep up. But how come the world that we live in seems to be very different from the busy world that men exist in. We often depict men to be stressed out regarding work and handling providing for a family. Unique parallel universes.
In my day to day life I find myself trying to multitask to a point of ridiculousness. POV: I sit down at my desk to start a paper I’ve been procrastinating but I can’t seem to get started, so I check my phone. I respond to a text and while I wait for a reply I open Instagram and see an old friend’s post. I should call her while I drive to the store tomorrow. I put my phone down and stare at my bright screen but my eyes wander to my calendar with all the events I have planned for the month and I am reminded that I have a presentation tomorrow. I need to rehearse my slides. What should I wear? I’ll check the weather. There are so many tasks that need attention that I manage to distribute a portion of my energy to each. Women advise us to take advantage of time by multitasking in order to be the most productive. We are encouraged to think ahead of reality to prepare what to do next.
What about when you sit down to watch Netflix but then you blink and find yourself scrolling on TikTok? Now you are trying to keep up with multiple forms of content but it feels uncomfortable to sit in reality and pay enough attention to what is in front of you. Is it ADHD, social media destructing our attention spans, or the constant need to feel productive by doing multiple things at once? I’ll admit I do feel guilty doing one thing at a time; for example, if I can watch a TV show while I enjoy dinner, why can’t I listen to lectures in class while getting other homework done?
There is so much to dissect about the everyday lives of women in our modern society that has now been infiltrated with social media as well. Many of us have grown accustomed to the controlled chaos that comes with adulthood as a woman. Complaining is not acceptable because we are deemed “the balance” of the family. Older sisters are treated as mother figures and supposed to be a good example to our younger siblings. We have expectations to assist our mothers in the household and it becomes an intimate way to bond in womanhood. When our worlds seem to be crumbling in front of us, who do we call? The women before us have the remedies to our storms and provide us with a light to show us what it takes to become a superwoman.