Female Workers 1.5 Times More Likely Than Men to Suffer Workplace Stress
According to a recent analysis carried out by health and safety consultancy Arinite, female workers in the UK are 1.5 times more likely than males to suffer from stress or anxiety caused or made worse by work.
This analysis, which looks at HSE data between 2009 and 2014, revealed a large gender divide in reported incidents of stress. Year on year, the number of women suffering stress in the workplace has been significantly higher than that reported by male workers.
An illustrative breakdown of the data can be seen below:
Whilst fatal and physical injury rates have declined or remained steady respectively, overall workplace-related stress levels have continued to rise in the UK since 2011. In 2014, for example, 487,000 incidences of work-related stress were reported – an increase of 87,000 since 2011. A full illustrated tracker of health and safety issues in the workplace can be found here.
Poor female working environment
In the report, ‘Work, Employment and Society’ from Haya Stier of Tel Aviv University, findings indicate that in industrialized countries the quality of the working environment for women seems to be considerably lower than for males. This comprehensive study focused on such topics as stress levels, tiredness, and flexibility in the workplace.
Upon being asked how stressful and exhausting they found their work, male responses came back on average five percent lower compared to female workers responding to the same question. The report indicates how opportunities for advancement, as well as feelings of job security and flexibility at work were also much lower in women than in men.
On top of this, the UK fosters a society in which large pay gaps between genders are still prevalent, despite widespread acknowledgement of the inequality of this practice. According to the ONS, the average pay gap between the genders as of 2014 was £100 per week – a £5,200 difference per year.
Implementing a stress management system
Females workers earn less, feel more exhausted, and have less job security than their male counterparts. This may go some way to explaining why the ratio of female workers suffering stress is considerably higher.
Health and safety consultant Bryan Richards suggests that this issue can be dealt with in two ways: “Ultimately employers need to acknowledge that their female employees are more likely to suffer when it comes to mental well being issues at work. Once they’ve established that this demographic is one that needs an increased amount of support, they can implement an appropriate stress management system.
“The next step is to discuss potential causes of stress in the workplace openly with employees. Have them identify key problem areas, either face to face or in an anonymous questionnaire, and then brainstorm solutions for this together. It is often advantageous to bring in a neutral external party to conduct these exercises, in order to ensure you don’t make assumptions about your staff.”
Tackling gender inequality
With approximately 11.3 million days of work being lost per year due to stress, and sickness absence rates costing employers on average £495 per employee per year, it’s crucial that businesses address the problem of female well-being.
In order to flourish, employers need to make tackling excessive female stress levels and gender inequality in the workplace a top priority.
Sources:
http://www.arinite.co.uk/
http://www.hse.gov.uk/
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Earnings+by+Region
