This factsheet highlights differences between male and female employees’ experiences of mental health at work.
Gender and Mental Health at Work
Business in the Community’s (BITC) 2019 Mental Health at Work: Time to Take Ownership report, in partnership with Mercer March Benefits, was informed by a YouGov panel of more than 4,000 employees. This Gender and mental health at work factsheet highlights some of the insights drawn from the research relating to differences between male and female employees and their experiences of mental health at work.
overall, almost two in five (39%) of employees, and 23% in the past month, have experienced poor mental health where work was a contributing factor in the past year (up from 36% in 2018). However, both of these figures increase for female employees, to 43% in the last year and 26% in the past month
66% of women had suffered psychological, behavioural, or physical symptoms of mental health caused from work at some point in their life, compared to 58% of men
51% of all employees feel comfortable talking about mental health problems at work. This increases to 53% of female respondents.
Calls to action
BITC urges employers to implement three calls to action. These are priority actions we believe will have the biggest impact on organisational capability to support better mental health:
Create good work that enhances mental health for everyone.
Acknowledge and support poor mental health, whatever the cause.
The Gender and mental health at work factsheet includes information on:
Causes for mental health inequality between the genders
Failures within the workplace
Menopause and mental health
Financial wellbeing
Recomendations for leaders
Additional resources
About BITC’s work on gender
Achieving a truly gender-balanced workforce means employers must recruit and progress the best talent – irrespective of gender.
The commercial imperative for realising women’s potential in the workplace is clear: gender equality enhances employee engagement, boosts productivity, meets the diverse needs of customers and suppliers, and improves brand reputation.
How BITC can support you
At BITC, our Inclusion Advisers use an intersectional approach to support organisations in every aspect of equity, diversity, and inclusion, including how to develop greater gender equity in your workplace.
To find out more get in touch with our Advisory team.
This briefing explores the key findings from research to help better understand how a lack of gender diversity impacts commercial outcomes in the workplace.
This factsheet sets out the importance of questioning whether equity and inclusion has been thought about when navigating new technologies and AI.
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