A growing number of women are hitting pause on dating due to the invisible burden of “mankeeping” - a term from Stanford research describing the unpaid emotional labor women perform in relationships. This emotionally taxing role often includes acting as live-in therapists, social secretaries, mediators, and mood managers for men who lack emotional outlets or supportive friendships.

According to the study, a staggering 72% of single women report feeling exhausted from emotionally mentoring the men they date, combining this with existing stresses like household mental load and career pressures . Experts link this imbalance to social conditioning: women are raised to nurture, while men are discouraged from emotional expressivity - a pattern that places unequal emotional demands on their female partners.

Consequences include burnout, resentment, and declines in self-worth and relationship satisfaction - echoing broader literature on emotional labor and mental load. Relationship experts recommend setting boundaries, encouraging male partners to build richer social support systems, and fostering equitable emotional sharing to prevent imbalance and burnout.