Category: Health

By Annika Dyczkowski and Libby Harris

Overview

Women have faced discrimination throughout history in all walks of life. While it is more understood now in modern day how discrimination affects a woman’s financial freedom and independence, people are still failing to understand the dramatic effects that this discrimination can have on women’s health, both physical and mental. These adverse health consequences for women can manifest in numerous ways and in both the short-term and long-term. Some of these include diminished sleep quality, elevated C-reactive protein (CPR) levels which are linked to an increased risk for heart attacks, heightened anxiety and depression, and overall poor self-assessment. Should the woman be a mother, these health repercussions can adversely affect both the child and the broader family unit. Health problems, as such, can also lead to more of these women having to exit the labor force altogether, leading to less financial stability and the hindrance of women gaining leadership positions. Whether examining the intersectionality of discrimination in workplace experiences or a women’s living environment, there is an emphasis on the need for a comprehensive understanding that accounts for a multitude of factors. Research has shown that a woman’s experience with discrimination does have a direct link to resulting health impacts, regardless of the other factors outside of gender. 

Policy Suggestions

It has become evident that discrimination adversely impacts the health of women and it is imperative to put an end to it. The allocation of funds, time, and effort in workplaces is of the utmost importance for resolving women’s continual discrimination in the workplace. Research presents that individuals, oftentimes, do not recognize some behaviors as harmful and reinforce an abusive or sexist workplace environment; these actions can be corrected formally through educational programs, changes in the organization of reporting structures, and mandatory workplace training. Proposed policies could incorporate a zero-tolerance approach, leading to the removal of individuals engaged in discriminatory practices. Additionally, policy could seek to provide a guidance or wellness staff member to assist both women and men if there are thoughts of anxiety and depression surrounding the workplace. 

Consequences without Intervention

Without the implementation of the proposed policies, women will continue to suffer in both the short and long term. Women who remain in workplaces that perpetuate gender inequality will continue to undergo occupational discrimination that is harmful to their mental and physical wellbeing. The results of subsequent studies reveal that women who are targets of dissatisfactory workplace experiences are more aggrieved by their supervisors than their coworkers. This finding implies that women could have less respect for their supervisors, causing a burdening and toxic corporate culture due to a lack of workplace standards.

The result of poor health from workplace discrimination could also shift women’s attitudes towards their occupation, losing the perseverance and mental inclination to perform well at work, hindering women’s career progression in the long run; this lack of mental stability linked to corporate confidence could result in being overlooked for promotion decisions or important projects, or poor performance evaluations that they would not have been penalized for otherwise. 

The poor treatment that women receive, consequently reflecting on their health, could also cause them to leave the workforce, feeling unmotivated and disinterested for the sake of their wellbeing. This consequence implies there would be less women with their own wage and disposable income, less women in the workforce, and less women with the ability to invest in their health, resulting in a troubling cycle of poor health. 

If women continue to undergo antagonizing workplace culture, their health will continue to depreciate; this can be manifested as poor sleep conditions, confidence levels, and more disturbingly adverse effects like infant mortality or cardiovascular disease. Women’s inability to invest in their health due to poor workplace conditions can have detrimental effects on their mental and physical wellbeing, making policy implementation even more important to avoid these consequences. 

Research Questions

1. Are women who are unemployed as susceptible to the effects of discrimination as those who work full-time or part-time? 
2. Are women more vulnerable to enduring specifically mental health challenges arising from their occupational experiences?
3. How does wage discrimination specifically impact the mental and physical well-being of women?

References

Andersson, Matthew A., and Catherine E. Harnois. “Higher Exposure, Lower Vulnerability? The Curious Case of Education, Gender Discrimination, and Women’s Health.” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 246, 2020, p. 112780, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112780. 

Beatty Moody, Danielle L., et al. “Everyday Discrimination Prospectively Predicts Inflammation across 7‐years in Racially Diverse Midlife Women: Study of Women’s Health across the Nation.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 70, no. 2, 2014, pp. 298–314, doi:10.1111/josi.12061.

Pennington, Andy, et al. “The health impacts of women’s low control in their living environment: A theory-based systematic review of observational studies in societies with profound gender discrimination.” Health & Place, vol. 51, 23 Feb. 2018, pp. 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.02.001.

Phillips, Susan P. “Including Gender in Public Health Research.” Public Health Reports (1974-), vol. 126, 2011, pp. 16–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41639299.

Sojo, Victor E., et al. “Harmful workplace experiences and women’s occupational well-being.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 1, 2015, pp. 10–40, https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684315599346. 

By: Anthony DiFederico and Luke Lentine

Summary of findings:

In the United States, nearly 20% of the population, or roughly 50 million people suffer from mental illness. While both men and women experience mental health issues, the long lasting impacts on employment due to mental health are marginally different. A study reported that approximately 20% of men and approximately 25% of women suffer from mental health related illness. Some of the major symptoms of mental health are anxiety and depression and trying to balance work with a busy home schedule can be challenging for all, especially mothers. In the journey of motherhood, the postpartum period is a unique chapter, often marked by emotional rollercoasters. This phase can bring about various mental health challenges for new mothers, such as feelings of anxiety, depression, and overwhelming stress. These symptoms can be influenced by several factors, including the balance between work and caring for the new baby, as well as the level of social support available. A University of Pitt study found that 36% of new mothers’ depression did not subside 1 year postpartum. For these uncontrollable reasons, women are seen as less desirable when compared to the male counterparts not only within the hiring process, but in their ability to earn high ranking jobs in the workplace as a whole. This increased depression and anxiety causes not only a decrease in the health of the woman, but in the entirety of the family. A study showed that the underemployment of women, directly related to their mental health caused low birth weight of their child, with their children being qualified as low weight when being under 2500 grams. The implications of women’s poor mental health created by the workplace leads to more care being needed for their child, which therefore will lead to more stress and depression on the mother as the caring of the child as we know is in their hands and the child will be in more need of support with these challenges related to birth weight. 

Policy Recommendations:

Considering the statistics from our findings, it is clear that policy intervention regarding women’s mental health in the workplace is essential. Flexible work environments such as remote options, and adaptable working hours can be particularly beneficial to the success of parents with young children in the workplace. Additionally providing financial benefits such as covering the cost of childcare services will lessen the burden that caring for children has on new parents both financially and mentally. Additionally, mental health check ups as well as counseling within the office should become a common practice that will not only make the environment more enjoyable for all, but increase productivity of workers. 

Consequences without Intervention:

Due to these findings, women are often overlooked for high ranking positions in the workplace, or not given the opportunity at all through the discrimination in the hiring process. While these symptoms are part of their natural biology and come with balancing their work with their jobs at home, to which they often do more than men, they still end up paying the price in the long run. Additionally, the term “emotional” is very common when describing women in the workplace. This can be very harmful to women’s confidence as according to a study by McKinsey and Company found that only 28% of senior management roles are held by women. The combination of not seeing themselves in positions of high rank and the adjectives used to describe them is detrimental to a woman’s success in the workplace, and will lead to a domino effect lasting generations. 

Research Questions:

1. What is the impact of various employment statuses (full-time, part-time, unemployed) on the mental health of parents?
2. How do men and women differ in their responses to the mental health challenges of balancing work and family life?
3. How does the postpartum stress of stay at home mothers differ from full time and part time workers who are mothers?
4. What are the long-term mental health effects for parents who juggle full-time employment?
5. How do cultural perspectives on employment and gender roles influence the mental health of married individuals?

References:

Dooley, D., & Prause, J. (2005). Birth weight and mothers’ adverse employment change. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(2), 141–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650504600202

Gove, W. R., & Geerken, M. R. (1977a). The effect of children and employment on the mental health of married men and women. Social Forces, 56(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.2307/2577413

Decken, C., Knitza, J., Witte, T., Fekete, S. P., Konitzny, M., Zink, A., Gauler, G., Wurth, P., Aries, P., Karberg, K., Kuhn, C., Schuch, F., Späthling-Mestekemper, S., Vorbrüggen, W., Englbrecht, M., Welcker, M., & RHADAR Group. (2021). A real-world rheumatology registry and research consortium: The german rheumadatenrheport (RHADAR) registry. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(5), e28164. https://doi.org/10.2196/28164

Ross, Catherine E., and John Mirowsky. “Does Employment Affect Health?” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, pp. 230–43. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2137340. Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.

By Matt Almansi and Ian Coffey

Summary of Issues

Mental health is something everybody has to deal with, one large factor surrounding poor mental health is the pursuit of employment. The use of the word “pursuit” is important because mental health issues arise not just from the stress of working, but also in the process of looking for jobs and being unemployed. Men’s and women’s mental health are both affected by their job or lack thereof but how it is experienced or shown varies between the genders. Five major symptoms of poor mental health include depression, anxiety, somatization, chronic fatigue, and psychotropic drug consumption. These symptoms tend to show up more often, unsurprisingly in high-stress jobs and when compounded with inadequate compensation or support these symptoms are only worse for both men and women. Beginning in the 1980s research on job-related stress has taken off. One of the key findings is that when resources available to the worker are adequate for the demands in the workplace then the mental health of the worker is protected. On the other hand, when the demands of the workplace exceed the resources available to the worker it creates a strenuous atmosphere, and the mental health of the worker becomes compromised. Although men and women both experience mental health issues in the workforce, the roots of their problems differ.

Policy Recommendation

It is hard to force or implement policies regarding what companies should pay their employees but people need better support in the workplace. It is clear that currently corporations do not do nearly enough to give back to their employees, but have no problem profiting from them. Two sound options emerge that the government or individual companies could implement for the betterment of the work culture and employees. The first is that if an employee works over a certain amount of hours in a month, then he or she is entitled to a mandatory day off at some point next month and does not have any effect on their structured PTO days. The second is for those who work in high-strenuous jobs to have medical benefits expanded to include mental health resources such as access to a psychologist or psychiatrist. The implementation of one or both would serve to treat and mitigate the negative health consequences in the workplace. This could take the form of an outright law companies must implement or through tax breaks, they can get by treating their employees well.

Consequences Without Intervention

Without the implementation of our proposed policy, the economy will be in a constant state of underperformance or unsustainable growth. Truth be told, there may not appear to be much change in day-to-day life if this policy is not put in place. However, society and the economy would improve drastically if workers felt better about themselves and thus the work they do. Mental health is a very important aspect of a worker’s ability to maximize productivity. At our current juncture, the U.S. economy is performing well, but that is not to say it could not be performing better. By implementing our proposed policies we theorize that workers will feel less burnt out and thus more productive. If nothing is done for the mental health of our workers, nothing will change drastically for the worse, there will always be someone willing to put themselves through the mental agony of a high-stress job. But if the mental health of employees is taken into account there will only be added benefits. Workers will feel more support in their workspaces, won’t feel as burned out, and will not display symptoms of poor mental health such as anxiety, depression, somatization, chronic fatigue, and drug use as frequently. 

Research Questions

1. Is work stress an isolated national problem or a global problem?
2. Are there, and if so, what are the policy differences between countries that have workers with good mental health vs countries with mentally unhealthy workers

References

• Godin, I., Kittel, F., Coppieters, Y. et al. A prospective study of cumulative job stress in relation to mental health. BMC Public Health 5, 67 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-5-67
• Strandh, Mattias, Anne Hammarström, Karina Nilsson, Mikael Nordenmark, and Helen Russel. “Unemployment, Gender and Mental Health: The Role of the Gender Regime.” Sociology of Health & Illness 35, no. 5 (2012): 649–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01517.x. 
• Peckham, Trevor, Kaori Fujishiro, Anjum Hajat, Brian P. Flaherty, and Noah Seixas. “Evaluating Employment Quality as a Determinant of Health in a Changing Labor Market.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences5, no. 4 (2019): 258–81. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2019.5.4.09.
• Tesch-Römer, Clemens, Andreas Motel-Klingebiel, and Martin J. Tomasik. “Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being: Comparing Societies with Respect to Gender Equality.” Social Indicators Research 85, no. 2 (2008): 329–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27734585.