Bad news for all the HBICs out there: According to a new study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, women who have more authority at work are more likely to have symptoms of depression.
For the study, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin used data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has followed thousands of men and women who graduated from the state's high schools in 1957. They interviewed 1,300 men and 1,500 women from the study, once in 1993 and again in 2004, asking them about job authority and the number of days in the past week they had experienced symptoms of depression, like feeling sad or feeling like a failure.
They found that for women, job authority had a lot to do with feeling depressed. Women with the ability to hire and fire had more depressive symptoms than women without that authority. But the opposite was true for men, who felt less depressed when they had authority at work. The study controlled for other factors that might lead to depression, like working long hours, job flexibility, and being micromanaged.
So why the difference? Lead author Tetyana Pudrovska said that double standards and negative stereotypes take a toll on female managers. "Women in authority positions are viewed as lacking the assertiveness and confidence of strong leaders. But when these women display such characteristics, they are judged negatively for being unfeminine," she said in a press release. "This contributes to chronic stress." But men don't have to face these issues, so they're less depressed when they're in power.
The study is yet another reason to embrace the whole Lean In mantra: Destroying stereotypes at work is good for your health, too.
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