Stress and Gender

Research on women’s responses to stressors suggests that women experience a wider range of life events (e.g., those happening to friends) as stressful as compared with men who react to a more limited range of stressful events, specifically those affecting themselves or close family members.

Studies show that women tend to react more to chronic life stressors like:

• Time constraints
• Meeting others’ expectations
• Marital relationships
• Children and family health

while men are more affected by work-related stressors like

• Change of job
• Demotion
• Pay cut
• Financial difficulties

Highly-stressed men are twice as likely to suffer symptoms as men who are not while stressed out women, are five times as likely.

The Life-Work Balance Challenge – A Call to Action

The facts on life-work balance, from Warren Shepell, clarify this challenge:

1. Over the past decade, the average work week increased from 42 to 45 hours per week
2. 40% employees work more than 50 hours per week, compared to 25% in 1990
3. Canadians spend only about 17 hours a week in non-work-related activities
4. 52% employees take work home with them, up from 31% in 1990
5. 18% of employees now take unpaid “catch-up” work home with them
6. 59% of employees check their voicemail after hours, 30% accept work-related faxes at home, and 29% keep their cell phones on.
7. 81% of white-collar employees accept business calls after hours; 65% check their email from home. 46% consider this work-related contact to be an intrusion on their lives.
8. 44% of Canadians working for large companies report negative spillover from work to family.
9. An estimated 28% of working Canadians feel that family and friends resent the number of hours they spend working.

Employees with families, surveyed in a 2003 US study, report significantly higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than employees, with men and women spending much less time on themselves, than 25 years ago. Ironically, the study revealed that those experiencing the greatest work spill over into their private lives rely most heavily on communications technology to help them keep in touch with friends and family…..and THAT is definitely on the rise!

Finding the right approach to achieve life-work balance can result in higher levels of motivation, energy and performance. It’s one of the core drivers of the heart of our coaching programs, customized to meet your specific needs for a balanced and sustainable lifestyle.