A new study shows that women who have the ability to hire, fire and influence pay in the workplace, are more likely to have symptoms of depression than women in lower level roles
Women with influence-like fictional Miranda Priestly-are more likely to feel depressed Photo: 20th Century Fox
Women in authority appear to be more vulnerable to depression than their male
counterparts, a study by sociologists in the United States said.
Researchers looked at 1,500 middle-aged women from Wisconsin and compared
their workplace experiences with 1,300 men in the same age bracket and from
the same US state.
They found that women with job authority-the ability to hire, fire and
influence pay-exhibited significantly more symptoms of depression than
those who did not.
"In contrast, men with job authority have fewer symptoms of depression
than men without such power," said University of Texas sociology
professor Tetyana Pudrovska, who led the study.
The difference could be down to women with authority in the workplace being
judged negatively when acting with confidence and assertiveness, prompting
chronic stress, Pudrovska added.
Men, on other hand, don't have to wrestle with the negative stereotypes that
often haunt women.
"What's striking is that women with job authority in our study are
advantaged in terms of most characteristics that are strong predictors of
positive mental health," Pudrovska added.
They might have more education, better pay, more prestigious occupations and
higher levels of job satisfaction and autonomy, "yet they have worse
mental health than lower-status women," she said.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, appears in the
December issue of the peer-reviewed Journal
of Health and Social Behavior.
