It is a scandal that working mothers are 40% more stressed than other people

[niyad]

It is a scandal that working mothers are 40% more stressed than other people
Chitra Ramaswamy


The only thing that lowers mothers’ stress levels is to work less – an option most women are unable to choose

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A woman with two children who works full-time will be 40% more stressed than one without children. Photograph: Nick White/Getty Images

Working mothers, let me tell you something you already know and are powerless to change no matter how many mumsplainers advise you to try mindfulness: you’re stressed. Eighteen per cent more stressed than other people. If you are working full-time and have two children, that figure rises to 40%. For single mothers it will no doubt be higher still. Anyway, as if you have got time for this when even reading about the stresses faced by working mothers is like a spa day. You have probably been interrupted by now and are once again up to your neck in the un(der)paid, undervalued and unending hard labour of meeting anyone’s needs but your own.

According to the largest survey of its kind, analysing measures of chronic stress in 6,025 participants nationwide, neither flexible hours nor working from home significantly lowered women’s stress levels. This goes against common thinking that flexitime is the answer to the stress induced by what used to be called “having it all” and has now resurfaced as the equally mythical “work-life balance”. What did have a positive impact? Working less. In other words, the option most women are unable to choose and the one capitalism will never recommend. How stressful.


None of this comes as a surprise. I’m a working mother of two children under five, one of whom has additional needs, and I have never been more stressed. I work part-time from home and look after my 19-month-old full-time with the help of my partner who has two jobs with flexible hours. This is my choice; to earn less, parent more and have an impenetrable diary. I’m lucky to be able to make it. But it’s still stressful. Self-care amounts to pushing out a jet wee (a technical term mothers will understand) while screaming “Nearly done!” at the small crowd gathered outside the door crying. Although that’s a lie. Of course I don’t close the door.

So, what is the solution? As is often the simple answer to the most complex feminist issues: more choice. The chronic stress experienced by working mothers is the result of structural inequality. It’s a manifestation of how undervalued, unsupported and unfashionable the work of mothering continues to be. We live in a society where looking after your own child between the ages of one and three is seen either as a necessity or a privilege. That choice has been excised from one of the most significant experiences in a woman’s life, as the number of working mothers with dependent children has risen by more than a million over two decades, is not just a source of stress. It’s a scandal.


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/28/scandal-working-mothers-40-per-cent-more-stressed-other-people

[Igel]

1. They make it sound like they read the article.

They read the abstract: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/are-flexible-work-arrangements-associated-with-lower-levels-of-chronic-stress-related-biomarkers-a-study-of-6025-employees-in-the-uk-household-longitudinal-study(cc24756e-c9fd-467b-b0c7-00ece18c53b4).html

There's nothing in The Guardian's article that's not either personal, commentary, or in the abstract.

Can't evaluate research based on reported claims. Claims =/= evidence.

I'll wait for the article and look at what the biomarkers are and if the analysis makes sense.

[pnwmom]

2. How do you now they only read the abstract and not the report of the research?

Did you read this article?

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/27/working-mothers-more-stressed-health

Professor Tarani Chandola, of Manchester University, and Dr Cara Booker, Professor Meena Kumari and Professor Michaela Benzeval, of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Essex University, examined biological data taken by nurses from 6,025 participants in the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, the largest survey of its kind in the world.

They adjusted the raw data to exclude other factors that could influence their findings, such as the women’s ages, ethnicity, education, occupation and income, allowing them to focus solely on working hours and family conditions.

According to their research, just published in the journal Sociology, neither working from home nor flexitime had an effect on women’s chronic stress levels. But reducing the number of hours they worked did have a positive impact.

“Work-family conflict is associated with increased psychological strain, with higher levels of stress and lower levels of wellbeing,” Chandola said. “Parents of young children are at particular risk of work-family conflict. Working conditions that are not flexible to these family demands, such as long working hours, could adversely impact on a person’s stress reactions.”

[niyad]

3. funny, that link says "page not found". and I notice, as happens so frequently, that women's

actual, personal experience in any area has, apparently, no scientific validity.