Major sources of stress among women managers, clerical workers, and working single mothers: demands vs. resources

Abstract

The study of stress in general and occupational stress in particular has, until recently, usually included male samples, with findings erroneously extrapolated for women. This review outlines common occupational and domestic stressors, many of which are unique to women, especially to mothers in paid employment. Stress is viewed as resulting from the combination of high role demands and low coping resources (material, psychological, interpersonal, and organizational). Women in paid employment worldwide are still expected to assume primary responsibility for home and family and are subject to a double burden of work, especially when the children are young. Women are also subject to considerable conflict between marital/parental and occupational demands. They occupy different jobs than men, usually hierarchically inferior and entailing fewer benefits and opportunities for growth. In this conceptual framework, three groups of women in paid employment have been empirically identified as being at relatively high risk for stress as conceptualized above: clerical workers, managers, and single (mainly divorced) parents. Further research is needed to explore occupational stress in blue-collar working women, and to elucidate the role and variety of coping resources.