The Working Woman Conundrum: The Mental Health Gap and the Workplace
BLOG POST BY CHRISTINE OKIGBO
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Work, in general, is stressful. Ask the next employee you see whether this is true, and I am sure they will have a thing or two to say about it. With globalisation and the job insecurity associated with new technological advances, it is unsurprising that more people are stressed. But who is particularly affected by this phenomenon? Research by Marcus et al. (2008) found that women reported more depressive symptoms, a greater severity of these symptoms, and more suicide attempts relative to men, even when the women and men are matched for individual-level characteristics, which indicates that age, ethnicity, and marital status do not explain the difference in poor mental health between women and men.
In Canada, women, on average, still earn 89 cents for every dollar that men earn (Statistics Canada, 2022), often with the same level of education and for the same jobs with the same responsibilities. To reiterate, women with the same qualifications and expertise as men are earning less than men and reporting poorer mental health. Perhaps some men handle work stress differently, for example through higher levels of substance use (Marcus et al., 2008), rather than reporting feeling depressed or anxious. However, it is likely that something far more complex is occurring.
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I recently read an article by Platt and colleagues (2016) that found that not only did working adult women report significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety disorders relative to men, but that when women in positions equivalent to men earned less, the gender gap in depression and anxiety disorders was significantly greater. No such difference was found when women reported a higher income compared to men for comparable work. Platt et al. (2016) attributed this disparity to gender discrimination. In short, devaluing the work of women can have a substantial impact on their development of psychological disorders. Although this finding was labeled the ‘Depression Gap’ (Platt et al., 2020), I argue that this label narrows the focus to depression, which is only one part of a much larger phenomenon, and that ‘Mental Health Gap’ is more appropriate given that additional mental health concerns such as generalised anxiety disorder and its symptoms (e.g., rumination) (Johnson & Whisman, 2013), other mood disorders, and syndromes such as burnout (Upadyaya et al., 2016) are also gendered.
The Mental Health Gap and Domestic Labour
After reading the article by Platt and colleagues, I began to wonder what affects the mental health gap between working men and women. As someone who grew up watching their mother go to work only to return home for a ‘second shift’ (Hochschild, 1989; Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2016), the unpaid domestic labour women perform seemed like a plausible explanation. Some might argue that women are not the only ones subject to this second shift; however, women still report performing more housework and household labour for the home rather than for themselves (Craig & Powell, 2016). Additionally, mothers and daughters are still spending more time on these household tasks relative to fathers and sons (Schultz, 2021).
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Boye (2010) found that for women, spending long hours on both household tasks and paid work was associated with greater psychological distress. Furthermore, when one type of work increases — further unevenly distributing the woman’s time — her psychological distress deepens (Boye, 2010). In many workplace cultures, home demands are considered work interference. To combat this, employees might prioritise their work duties over their home duties. However, the demands of the work role can lead to work-family conflict (Michel et al., 2011). Consequently, employees feel the need to conceal any spillover they experience because of this discord.
The negative experience of work spillover might indicate a core problem of the mental health gap. The time pressure from the work and home domains may become mutually incompatible when a woman is unable to separate her identity as a worker from her non-work identities (e.g., mother, wife, daughter). For example, a female employee experiencing stress at home due to her role as the primary caregiver could leave her with fewer mental resources to adequately perform her role as a worker. I argue that the stress resulting from this spillover is an important contributor to the mental health gap between women and men, who often benefit from the uneven distribution of household labour. Based on Hobfoll’s (1989) Conservation of Resources Theory, stress can result from the loss of resources which are things one values such as time, self-esteem, and employment. For example, the combined effect of excessive work and household duties could drain one’s time and energy resources thus resulting in stress. Because women tend to contribute more in terms of domestic labour, it is possible then that they experience more stress which makes them more likely than men to experience poorer mental health and well-being.
When I considered this phenomenon, I realised that racialised women are doubly affected due to their status as racial minorities. A Black female employee, for example, must carry the weight of stereotypes along with her workload (Yoder & Berendsen, 2001). Consequently, she might become preoccupied with how others perceive her which could negatively affect both her job performance and mental health. Prejudicial beliefs accompanied by the conflict between racialised women’s roles as a wives, partners, mothers, and employees are strains that will inevitably lead to stress. This may be another factor in the disparity seen in mental health between men and women.
Consequences of the Mental Health Gap
Why is it a grave concern that women report poorer mental health? Employers, if your female employees are suffering psychologically that means less engagement, an increased potential for burnout (Upadyaya et al., 2016) and a potential decrease in social cohesion. A negative workplace culture also affects how workers function as a member of society when they are not at work. Evidently, the mental health gap is an important concern not only for women’s mental health but also for proper functioning of both the workplace and society.
Is All Hope Lost?
Changing workplace culture could contribute to reducing the mental health gap. Three steps can be taken to enact this change.
First, employers need to adopt a new perspective on work-life balance. Expecting employees to leave their non-work identities, such as mother or father, at the door when entering the workplace is unrealistic. Instead, integrating work and home roles could reduce employee’s stress and possibly reduce their likelihood of developing mental health problems.
Second, both co-workers and employers need to acknowledge that all workers can have some home-life spillover in the workplace that has potential to impact their performance. Consequently, employees are likely to feel more seen by their employers which could foster loyalty.
Third, employers need to turn this new perspective into action by making policies that facilitate an adequate work-home balance. For example, employers could institute flexible work hours and offer remote opportunities which could offer both men and women an opportunity to better manage household duties and childrearing responsibilities.
I assert that a change in workplace culture will inevitably lead to a reduction in the wage gap as businesses examine the biases they hold about women as employees. In doing this, we will not only see pay equality but a future where women do not report more symptoms and mental health concerns compared to men.