Women remain underrepresented in politics across most democracies. This gap reflects not only barriers to entering office but also gendered differences in elected politicians’ confidence in their ability to perform and their desire to remain or advance. We investigate one overlooked mechanism shaping these outcomes: the domestic mental load of anticipating, planning, and monitoring household tasks. We argue that women politicians are more likely than men to shoulder this cognitive burden, which can undermine occupational self-efficacy and political ambition. To test this, we conducted a pre-registered survey experiment with local councillors in England (N = 1,065), randomly priming respondents to reflect on their household cognitive labor. We find that mental load priming significantly reduces councillors’ confidence in their ability to meet the demands of office, though it does not significantly affect political ambition. Our descriptive data further reveal stark gender inequalities: women councillors report carrying a greater share of cognitive labor (77% vs. 59%), less satisfaction with this division, and more emotionally demanding responsibilities than their male counterparts. These findings provide the first experimental evidence that reminders of domestic mental load can weaken elected officials’ sense of efficacy, pointing to how private inequalities may continue to shape political careers. By highlighting the hidden costs of cognitive labor, our results suggest that addressing domestic inequalities is not only a matter of fairness at home, but also of sustaining diverse and representative leadership in public life.
