Women’s mental health: Navigating the pressures of careers, caregiving, and societal expectations

The intersection of stressful life in current scenarios and mental health is riddled with a lot of challenges for all of us. This equation becomes even more complex when gender-based roles and inequalities are thrown into it, especially for females. Women often face unique mental health challenges while juggling their careers with societal expectations and caregiving roles.

Societal expectations and pressure to conform to societal norms often lead to an unequal distribution of domestic responsibilities, leading to stress and burnout. Women are often burdened with the most time-consuming and tedious task of all, which is caring for children. Daily caregiving responsibilities such as meal preparation, monitoring homework, and transporting to various activities often consume a significant amount of time, leading to a lack of rest and physical and mental tiredness. In addition, the requirement of time, resources, and mental strength to meet the responsibilities of childcare is often unpredictable due to multiple factors like academic requirements, illness, holidays, etc. These sudden, unpredictable interruptions can impact the professional life of a working woman.


Unlike men, women often work under pressure from stereotypes that paint a picture of motherhood and career success as incompatible. These factors result in dissatisfaction at work and mental stress. Experiences of discrimination, sexual harassment, violence, and a lack of women-friendly environments add emotional distress, significantly impacting mental health.

When a woman tries to break free from these stereotypes by enacting stereotype-incongruent social roles, hostile prejudices are activated. For example, women endure social and economic repercussions and are met with stigma (being disliked, less likely to receive a job offer or promotion) when they engage in stereotypically male behavior.

Although gender equity is on the rise, women still remain the primary caregivers at home and are made to struggle with the ideal worker norm. It has been observed and researched that the ideal worker norm "fits" gender expectations better for men (which assumes that men will privilege work success at all costs) than for women (who are assumed to care in the same way about their families).


Although these challenges and the repercussions that women face in terms of poor mental health are easily observed by families and society at large on an everyday basis, there seems to be only minimal effort to improve the situation.
Thus, all women, especially working women, should take it upon themselves to address the mental health challenges they face and take appropriate steps to improve their wellness:

1) Self-care and self-love: Ensure to create and follow a self-care routine such as healthy eating, physical exercise, relaxation training, regular sleeping hours, etc.
2) Set healthy boundaries and learn to say no: Set clear boundaries between work and personal life. Minimize work-related communication during personal hours. Say no to the additional burden, whether personal or work-related, if you find it difficult to cope with existing work.
3) Support network: Build a support network with family members, friends, and colleagues to share responsibilities and worries. Connecting with people often reduces stress and improves mental health.
4) Seek professional support: Reach out to a mental health professional, as they can provide a safe and relaxing space to have open conversations about mental health-related challenges. They can also help create tailored strategies to improve mental health.

(Author: Dr. Meenakshi Jain, Consultant, Psychiatry, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad)