Women and Occupational Stress

What is Occupational Stress?

Occupational stress in case of women results from adverse working conditions, dysfunctional internal and external attitudes that engulf the individual’s coping resources and manifests in acute cognitive, emotional, behavioral or physical problems.

In recent times, women are fast pervading almost all traditionally male-dominated professions and performing effectively. Despite this the traditional mindset where males view professional role as their primary objective and neglect household responsibilities while females view marriage and parenthood as their primary objective persists. There obviously exist several impediments in the journey of career-oriented women: despite being equally qualified and experienced as men women have to struggle hard to reach the top positions in any profession, they are underpaid as compared to men, face discrimination and discouragement both internally and externally, many a times they are forced to restrict themselves to mundane jobs though they can take up better ones and apart from working have to do the large part of household chores as well.

Symptoms of Occupational Stress in Women

Women who face chronic occupational stress develop psychological problems (depressive symptoms, insomnia, dissatisfaction, irritability, rage, anxiety, fearfulness, feelings of guilt and shame and withdrawal), physical problems ( coronary heart disease, changes in blood pressure, body ache, tension headaches, short menstrual cycles, digestive problems and back pain) and dysfunctional behavioral manifestations ( sickness absenteeism, changing jobs frequently, career interruption and job withdrawal owing to negative job attitudes).

Working Women and Well-being

Though working women are likely to get stressed while striking a balance between multiple roles (worker, spouse, mother, daughter-in-law, daughter) that they are required to do nevertheless they still tend to have better physical and mental health as compared to those women who are housewives. This is because these different roles add to and enrich women’s sense of self and enhance psychological well-being. The strain and stress they experience due to one role is balanced by the satisfaction they obtain from other roles. Many people tend to devalue the work of a homemaker woman taking it for granted and thinking that it can be easily substituted by a housekeeper. Thus, women who are homemakers despite working around the year without a break for even a single day may feel extremely insignificant as the family does not value their contributions.

Risk Factors

There are several factors that precipitate and perpetuate stress in working women:
Conflicting Roles: Saroj started her day at 4:30 Am preparing different kinds of breakfast and lunch for her family. She would rush from one corner of the house to another as her husband and two children would need her help with small things such as a glass of water, a pair of socks, sharpening a pencil, etc. She would try her best and get ready to leave for her school where she worked as a teacher around 8:00 Am. Almost everyday she felt guilty as there was something or the other about the household work or the school work that she forgot. She would be reprimanded both at home and school that she was not putting in her best. Saroj always thought how could this be fixed, how could she make her performance better. She could not see that she was already doing a lot.

Working women are supposed to give an ardent commitment to both their career and family. There are huge expectations from both sides and women feel that they must sacrifice one for securing another and the choice is never an easy one. While it is a norm for women to take time from work in order to address the household responsibilities, the similar expectation does not apply to men at all. Almost all married working women in India have to assume some degree of responsibility for cooking, household cleaning, shopping, child care and elderly care. Women in professional careers feel guilty either because they are unable to pay attention to their family because of career or vice-versa.

They feel that whatever they are doing is not good enough and that they cannot meet their own standards. This inner sense becomes very painful when they are rebuked at either workplace or home due to their relative non-commitment.

Discrimination and Harassment at Work

Tara had joined as an assistant professor in a renowned university department. She was eager to introduce novel ways of practical training in the syllabus that required a lot of field work in slums. As she presented her views in a departmental meeting, the head of the department who was a male cut her short. He said that he was like her father and therefore advising her that because she is quite good looking, field work would prove dangerous for her as young boys and men may make sexual advances at her. He also added that she has developed a wrinkle under her eyes and it was high time that she got married rather than coming up with these esoteric plans. Tara was dismayed and enraged but could not protest as whatever was said was presented with an alibi of fatherly concern.

Women get discriminatory treatment in hiring and promotion, salaries and career growth opportunities. A ‘glass ceiling’ exists in many organizations where women even though they are as talented, qualified and experienced as men are rarely promoted to the top position. Many a times male colleagues tend to hold a derogatory view of female colleagues, minimize her contributions and push her in the background. This occurs as they experience a blow to their masculinity when they acknowledge that a woman has surpassed them. The male colleagues may ignore her professional contributions but focus more on the physical appearance and attire and pass denigrating and sexist remarks. There may be inappropriate remarks and implicit sexual advances. In Indian context, these advances and remarks tend to be extremely couched and women experience a greater hesitation to protest making it on the whole a very traumatic experience for them.

Dilemma of Internal Values

Bina was encouraged by her father and brothers to think seriously about her career. While giving her 12th class final examinations she decided to become an engineer. All of a sudden there were severe disturbances in her behavior. She would faint and then shout that a woman was trying to harm her and take everything away from her. There was a sharp decline in her academic performance and she could not study at all. After going to some local faith healers, the family got her for counseling. After a few sessions, her symptom did not seem bizarre but could be well understood. Bina had grown up in a culture where females are supposed to be only homemakers. Though her father and brothers were encouraging her to change this and she also consciously wished to make her career, unconsciously she experienced huge conflict and fear as this was going against her internal values and image of woman.

Women in the contemporary Indian culture have to face huge emotional ambivalence externally and internally while thinking about their careers. People around them often give them mixed messages about what is desirable for them and these conflicting images are internalized. Women then often experience an internal struggle at critical points in their life over what they really want. At times they feel encouraged to achieve, excel and become independent while on other occasions they wish to embrace dependence and devote to parenting and household responsibilities. Some women unconsciously view success and achievement as masculine and feel that it will not be valued by significant others in their life and therefore turn underperformers.

Combating Occupational Stress

Both women and health care professionals find it difficult to see the link between occupational stress and physical and psychological symptoms. Usually the focus tends to be on treating the symptoms without understanding their context and underlying causes. Standard stress management techniques such as problem solving techniques, relaxation exercises, meditation, professional counseling and indulging in favorite pastimes are helpful in reducing some of the symptoms of stress. Even though the person may benefit from this until and unless the link between the symptoms and work stress is recognized there are chances of frequent relapse.
In order to combat work related stress, women should develop an insight into their internal value system and understand how it influences their decisions, motivation and well-being. They need to acknowledge that they do not have to follow the male model of working where the ideal worker is the one who devotes fully to work and has no other responsibilities. At the same time they must also acknowledge that the traditional model of women totally immersed in household duties is also something that they need not and cannot follow.

Each woman should think creatively about how to integrate these two models rather than experiencing pressure from each side to give a total commitment and excellence. A realistic assessment of what all they are doing and how much can they do needs to be made. They must explain their difficulties to spouses and other family members and share the burden of household responsibilities.