The Emotional Labor Podcast - Sarah McKay

The Emotional Labor Podcast

I learned about the good work of Dr. Sarah McKay from her Linked In post on cognitive labor and the household/women’s work. Since I tend to focus on the brain’s Executive Functions to help us understand what it actually takes to do the work of household management, I couldn’t resist an opportunity to connect with Dr. McKay.

Sara McKay is an Oxford University-educated neuroscientist, author, speaker and director of Think Brain's suite of online professional training programs in brain health and applied neuroscience. In our illuminating discussion, Dr. McKay found herself on the cutting edge of research on the gender gap around women’s health. Young female scientists become older female scientists and these Gen X researchers are leading research labs, and incorporating “sex” as a biological variable, and Sarah McKay is in the thick of discussing women’s brain health.

One of my big take-aways from our conversation was around the nature/nurture narrative. Women operate on two levels: biological/hormonal and gender experience. As pregnancy shapes and sculpts the gender experience, so too does whether or not you live in an egalitarian family, environment, or country. Research shows that when women live in countries where equality is a given [Scandinavia, for example], women’s brain health is on par with their male counterparts. In more unequal countries [e.g.,Afghanistan], women’s brain health is compromised.

Dr. McKay also talked about her personal journey in marriage and motherhood. With a kind and understand spouse, the language of “how can we make this work?” became a staple in their relationship.

Dr. Sarah McKay is the author of two books: Baby Brain: The surprising neuroscience of how pregnancy and motherhood sculpt our brains and change our minds (for the better) and The Women’s Brain Book: The Neuroscience of Health Hormones and Happiness. And you can learn more about her good work here: https://drsarahmckay.com/.