The Second shift is a term used to describe the workload women have over and above what men have. It originates from Arlie Hochschild's book of the same name (see: Double burden on Wikipedia).
In mainstream society, women's second shift mostly consists of Childcare and domestic labour.
Effects on geek participation
The second shift can make it hard for women to participate in geek communities, due to lack of time or flexibility, or difficulty in travel.
See also:
Additional workload on geek women
In geek society, the second shift can also include time spent:
- proving technical competence (when men do not need to)
- dealing with harassment
- responding to requests for comment on women-in-tech issues
- giving Unicorn talks
- Volunteering on projects to provide a female/feminist contribution
- Mentoring and supporting other women
- Identifying structural inequalities and being pressured to "teach" her way over obstacles when it shouldn't be her job
Sometimes this is referred to as a third shift.
This takes up a considerable amount of many geek women's time.
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