Scientists Reveal Why Women Are Quiet-Quitting Relationships Over 'Mankeeping'

According to scientists, there's a new trend that might be explaining why more women are choosing to walk away from their relationships with men for good. This trend is known as 'mankeeping'.

More and more women seem to be stepping away from heterosexual relationships at rates we haven’t seen before. Experts believe this is happening because of an overwhelming amount of emotional labor that women are expected to manage—something that's been made worse by what they’re calling a 'male friendship recession'.

Back in 2023, former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy officially declared loneliness a national epidemic. Since then, new surveys have shown that young men in the United States, particularly those aged between 15 and 34, are among the loneliest groups in the Western world.

Over the last thirty years, men’s social circles have reportedly shrunk more than women’s, which has led to many men relying more heavily on the women in their lives rather than close male friends for emotional and social support.

Now, a new study in psychology has uncovered that the shrinking number of friendships among men is having a ripple effect. It’s placing more responsibility on women, with many of them choosing to stay single rather than carry the extra emotional weight in a relationship.

This growing emotional reliance is creating significant stress for women. A paper published in the journal Psychology of Men & Masculinities describes this pattern through a concept called 'mankeeping', introduced by researchers at Stanford University.

Women are reportedly making up for the lack of male friendships for their partners Getty Stock Image

"Mankeeping refers to the efforts women make to compensate for men's thinner social networks, which can strain their time and well-being." the study reads.

"Specifically, 'mankeeping' is defined as the labor that women take on to shore up losses in men's social networks and reduce the burden of men's isolation on families, the heterosexual bond, and on men."

According to the researchers, this growing trend adds yet another challenge to the already long list of gender inequalities that women face in both their homes and romantic partnerships.

Experts say male loneliness is an epidemic in the US, particularly affecting younger men Getty Stock Image

Angelica Ferrara, the lead researcher and a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Clayman Institute for Gender Research, says the study highlights how women are spending several hours each week helping the men in their lives with emotional and social matters.

She explains that this kind of 'mankeeping' often goes unnoticed. And it’s not just about romantic partners—it extends to family members, coworkers, and even friends.

The research outlines three main parts to this concept: offering emotional support, helping men form and maintain social connections, and guiding them on how to engage socially with others.

The problem has apparently become so bad women would rather not have relationships with men Getty Stock Image

The paper points out that women often end up giving more emotional support to men who don’t have that support from anyone else. And this isn’t just something kind-hearted—it’s a form of labor that takes up a lot of time and energy, which usually isn’t returned in equal measure.

This imbalance can be exhausting. In fact, it’s so draining that many women are choosing to 'quiet-quit' relationships. That means they mentally check out while still physically staying in the relationship.

Another related study found that about 23 percent of women are now less interested in dating compared to men, mainly because they’ve previously invested too much emotional energy in past relationships and don't want to go through that again.