We all know that women’s workloads both at home and on the job have increased during the pandemic, but now a Deloitte study from the US has proven it conclusively and highlighted some grave impacts on mental health.
More than 5,000 women across 10 countries were asked questions relating to their domestic roles and their professional workplace duties. Roughly 8 in 10 women reported increased workload since the pandemic began, as well as increased responsibilities at home.
More than fifty percent of respondents said they felt less optimistic about their careers than they did before the pandemic and roughly 60 percent planned to leave their workplaces in the next two year.
Emma Codd, the Head of Global Inclusion for Deloitte, told NBC that women are feeling overwhelmed and burnt out.
“Women are telling us they on the whole do not feel their employers’ support has been sufficient, and many feel unable to switch off from work,” she said.
Most respondents said they felt they consistently needed to be “on” for work. Consequently, with the compounding of work and home responsibilities, many women reported that their mental health had also suffered.
Only one-third of women reported their mental health as “good” or “extremely good”, and only 4 percent described working for companies who had “gender equality leaders”.
Most respondents felt that companies could show better support by implementing progressive policies around childcare and caregiving, as well as short-term breaks and better resources to assist their mental health.
“This is about embedding flexible working as the norm,” Codd said. “It’s about leaders’ embracing it. It’s about knowing that working differently to what may be the norm is still successful. It’s about judging on outputs.”