The Capacity to Thrive: Women’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace

Mim Senft — Sat, 10 May 2025 01:19:25 +0000

May is US Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health is more than the absence of illness—it’s the ability to manage stress, build resilience, and thrive personally and professionally. For women in the workplace, mental health challenges are not only more common but also more complex, influenced by biological, social, and economic factors.

Women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience anxiety and mood disorders, and young women, in particular, face rising rates of depression and self-harm (Mental Health Foundation- UK). These issues are compounded by factors such as unequal pay, workplace bias, caregiving responsibilities, and fear of stigma—especially in male-dominated or unsupportive environments.

Despite growing awareness, stigma around mental health persists. Many women still feel unsafe speaking openly about emotional challenges at work. A 2024 Deloitte study found that nearly 60 percent of women feel unsupported by their employers when it comes to mental health, and 70 percent feel uncomfortable discussing mental health in the workplace. Office-based women reported declining mental health and productivity, largely due to difficulty balancing work and home life. At the same time, 95 percent of women reported fearing negative impacts on their career progression if they were to request or take advantage of flexible work opportunities. There are resources available to address these challenges with WBC’s network. Motivity Care’s Partnership with Women business Collaborative is working with businesses, organizations and leaders on how we can address these issues.

Employers have both an opportunity and a responsibility to step up for women and help level the playing field at work.

What Businesses Can Do

1. Normalize Mental Health Conversations
Create a culture where open dialogue about mental health is encouraged, not penalized. Ensure employees—especially women—feel safe discussing their experiences without fear of judgment or career repercussions.

2. Train Leaders at Every Level
Leadership matters. Yet, 70 percent of senior leaders receive no training on mental health conversations. Equip managers and executives with the skills to recognize signs of mental distress and respond with empathy and support.

3. Close the Pay Gap
Economic stress has a direct impact on mental health. One study found women earning less than male counterparts were 2.4 times more likely to suffer from depression and 4 times more likely to experience anxiety. Pay equity is both a fairness and wellness issue.

4. Address Harassment and Toxic Culture
Sexual harassment has been clearly linked to anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. Companies must prioritize safe, respectful workplaces and take swift action when issues arise.

5. Support Younger Women Employees
Younger women face unique stressors, from social media pressure to career uncertainty. Proactive mental health support and mentoring can help them build resilience early and increase their leadership potential over time.

WBC, through its network of experts and companies that are actively working on positive change for women, provides in-depth reporting and resources for organizations with information and action steps that can help organizations better address pay inequity, training for true allyship, and help more women move into leadership positions.

Within our network, here are just a few great examples of WBC partners that are turning the tide for women’s mental health at work:

Motivity Care was founded to provide a measurable way to reduce the cost, time and risks of caregiving to allow working caregivers to be able to balance their work, personal life and caregiving more effectively. It is a benefit that goes beyond just educating about this barrier, it is designed as a practical solution to help keep more women in the workplace.
WBC Partner Organization, Global Women 4 Wellbeing (GW4W), has focused on healthier female leadership, including mental health, since 2016. The organization has provided insights into the connection between caregiving and financial wellbeing as well as targeted information on grief and loss. They have been providing experiential workshops for organizations so that working women better understand how to protect their physical, mental and financial health at each stage of their career. They educate on how to better use benefits and resources at their companies and be more aware of the various stressors they may experience at different stages of their career. This gives working women the opportunity to better plan for challenges in advance. Being prepared can reduce these stressors that can derail a career or put someone into financial jeopardy. It can make the difference at key points in their careers that can either hold them back or help them more forward.

Employers have both an opportunity and a responsibility to step up for women and help level the playing field at work.

WBC is able to help companies get connected to the professional, experienced resources to better address key barriers for women in the workplace and help close the workplace gender gap.

Together, we can make positive change for the next generation of women leaders. By investing in women’s mental wellbeing, companies don’t just improve employee health—they cultivate stronger leaders, increase productivity, and foster a culture of inclusion. Supporting mental health isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s a smart business decision.

The post The Capacity to Thrive: Women’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Leaders That Care: Women, Leadership Pay Parity and Caregiving

Mim Senft — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 03:31:33 +0000

There is a photograph of a woman from 1910 holding up a sign that says “equal pay for equal work.” One hundred and ten plus years later, we are still working towards that goal. Pay equity has a direct impact on leadership equity. It also is one of the key issues impacting leaders who are caregivers to children, aging adults and themselves. It impacts financial stability, what personal and professional choices we make, and how we take care of ourselves.

Over the past 40 years more and more women have managed to move into leadership. They have started and run successful businesses. They have moved into community leadership positions. But it has not been easy. We continue to run into the default view on gender roles: dad is the primary breadwinner, mom is the primary caregiver -regardless of educational background or profession. We need to recognize the problem with these long held cultural views of gender roles and how it continues to impair how women are viewed as leaders. We need to understand the cost it has to our health and our ability to be the leaders the world needs us to be.

Many of us feel like we are in a vice, pushed from both sides, taking care of children and/or aging adults and trying to grow a professional career. We continue to be told we are supposed to be superwoman, able to just push through, do more, sleep less, ignore our health and wellbeing because that is what women are supposed to do, the ideal for us to attain. That ideal is a barrier to closing the gender equity leadership gap.

The caregiving barrier became clearly underscored with the onset of the pandemic. Choices had to be made as to who was going to stay home and who would be the primary caregiver to children and/or to aging adults. Even before the pandemic, on average, a working caregiver to an aging adult in their lives working at any level will spend an additional 21 hours a week doing administrative or direct care, according to AARP research. That is in addition to all other personal and professional responsibilities. It is not the same for our male counterparts.

The female leadership pipeline starts to dry up at around age 35 to 40. But the challenges start earlier. Women make less than their male counterparts in the same positions with the same educational background and are subject to both the glass ceiling and the sticky floor when it comes to pay equity. After grinding it out, women fall further behind when they take time off for caregiving. Because they make less, paying for caregiving becomes more difficult. Women are also more likely to tap into retirement money to care for an aging parent.

All of this also takes a toll on personal health and wellbeing and financial stability. It makes it more challenging for a woman to take on a new leadership role. We need an integrated approach so working women can step into leadership and have resources that support a caregiver in a healthier, more balanced way.

At the Women Business Collaborative (WBC), there is a focused discussion to help get better policies in place, discuss how we can meaningfully address the cultural biases that derail policies, and create a path for women to become leaders. Multiple WBC Action Initiatives are dedicated to emphasizing and breaking down these issues. From the Women in the Pipeline group which works to establish strong relationships and leadership development amongst women leaders, to the Gender and Pay Parity focus area, spreading awareness of the pay gap and lack of representation, WBC is making waves in a society that has traditionally mistreated its women in the workforce.

We need to recognize that without our health, without a better approach to working women that are caregivers, we cannot lead well. Our legacy can be that more women will have a better professional and personal path forward. Companies will get the financial benefits of keeping these talented women in their leadership pipeline. We can better close the gender equity leadership game by putting more thought into caring for the caregivers.

The post Leaders That Care: Women, Leadership Pay Parity and Caregiving appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Mim Senft, Author at Women Business Collaborative

The Capacity to Thrive: Women’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace

Leaders That Care: Women, Leadership Pay Parity and Caregiving