The “worry gap” or women’s greater propensity to worry

In recent years, reports on the mental health of the French have multiplied, most of the time indicating an alteration of it, especially since the pandemic. But women seem systematically more concerned than men. During the first confinement, 31.6% of women said they were anxious, compared to only one in five men (21.3%), according to the results of a survey carried out by Public Health France and the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP). Same observation in a study published in 2021, this time carried out in the United States, where researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine noticed anxiety disorders “twice as common” in women than in men. “Social and cultural factors likely play an important role in the development of anxiety in women“, notes Thatiane De Oliveira Sergio, professor of psychiatry and main author of this research. But this diagnosis turns out to be well before the pandemic: in 2016, an English search carried out by researchers at the University of Cambridge came to the conclusion that women were almost twice as likely to suffer from anxiety as men.

This phenomenon even has a name: the “worry gap”. Meaning “the worry gap” in French, the English term therefore refers to the greater propensity of women to worry or feel anxiety. According to Barometer 2023 from the French social protection group Malakoff Humanis (which chose to analyze the issue of mental health at work through the prism of gender), 44% of female employees say they are in poorer psychological health (compared to 32% of men). This impaired mental health at work can be explained by several factors, starting with remuneration. In 2022, women earned on average 14.1% less than men in the private sector, according to INSEE estimates. And the financial difficulties of women weigh more and more heavily in the balance. A survey published at the beginning of December by Secours populaire also reveals that 46% of women have been affected by at least one psychological disorder over the last twelve months, mainly because of their unstable financial situation (compared to 41% of their male counterparts).

But this growing unease also stems from a gendered belief firmly anchored in society according to which women are “naturally” more empathetic and attentive to the concerns of others, and therefore more “able” to get involved in emotional. It is no coincidence that women are over-represented in the care and personal assistance professions (the famous “care”). However, “the health and medico-social sector, in which women are more represented, is one of the most physically and psychologically difficult”, underlines the Malakoff Humanis survey.

Unfortunately, the worry gap extends well beyond the professional sphere. An OpinionWay survey unveiled as the holidays approach by Elle Active & L’Oréal Paris, reveals that nearly nine out of ten French women (86%) consider that daily life is difficult as a woman. More than two thirds of them (68%) say they do not agree with the values ​​advocated by society, and more than eight out of ten (82%) consider that the injunctions made to women, whether they concern motherhood, Beauty standards, or social position, still weigh heavily on their shoulders today. Added to this are sexist and sexual violence. According to figures mentioned in a UN Women report in 2021, 45% of women said they or a woman they knew had experienced some form of violence, while six in ten women feel sexual harassment in public spaces has gotten worse.

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Mental load at work and at home

Another aspect, less known (but no less real), is mentioned by some experts: that of anticipation. As highlighted in an article recently published by the Welcome to the Jungle website, worrying can help avoid worry. A very useful quality, but which goes unnoticed in a society that places greater value on people capable of reacting quickly and resolving problems when they arise (a quality which will be more associated with men, especially at work). In addition to not being recognized as a real faculty, the fact of anticipating everything increases the mental load on women a little more.

But of course, this mental load doesn’t only manifest itself at work. It is even more pronounced at home, since domestic and family tasks, invisible and unpaid, still fall mainly on women, which only increases their levels of stress and anxiety, as many have pointed out. numerous psychiatrists and therapists. “Men are stressed too, but the difference for women lies in the nature and extent of responsibilities, particularly in the family environment“, analyzes the American Erin Joyce, therapist for women and couples, in a New York Times article published in 2018.

To get out of this, one of the main levers to activate is to aim for a more equitable sharing of household tasks within households. However, the gap is tending to narrow, as demonstrated a report from the European Institute for Gender Equality, published last October. 68% of women take care of cooking and cleaning every day, compared to 80% in 2015. As for men, 43% say they do their part, compared to 36% seven years earlier. But the reduction in this gap is mainly linked to the use of home help services, which has increased since the pandemic. In other words, if the mental load between the two sexes is reduced, it is primarily because women are doing less than before at home and not because men are doing more…

Slide: 7 strategies to ease your anxiety