If one of feminism’s next big agenda items is emotional labor—certainly a possibility, based on the conversation that evolved this past year—we might want to move beyond this idea of measuring our emotional output. Instead, we could focus on changing the culture—in our homes, workplace, and government—to level the playing field. We need to be encouraging young boys to express their feelings, imparting a sense of responsibility on them for the emotional well-being of others. We also need to make sure men get to spend more time with their families, through universal parental-leave policies and workplaces that fully understand that fathers are parents, too. Only then will we achieve what I would consider “a shake-patriarchy-to-its-core revolution”: the creation of a world in which women have enough time and space to love freely, without hesitation or restraint.

Elissa Strauss, “The Year We Wondered If Emotional Labor Should Come with a Price”