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.