A recent study from New York’s Columbia University shows that there is a correlation between the gender wage gap and depression and anxiety in women. The researchers claim that unfair treatment in women’s daily lives triggered a wider gap in mental illness between genders.
On average, women with the same qualifications as men at a job make 82 cents to a man’s dollar. Women are twice more likely to have depression than men, and four times as likely to experience some sort of anxiety. Jonathan Platt, a PhD student in epidemiology at the university’s Mailman School, concluded that bigger social factors are at play according to the 22,581 working US adults aged from 30 to 65 surveyed.
“Our results show that some of the gender disparities in depression and anxiety may be due to the effects of structural gender inequality in the workforce and beyond,” said Platt. “The social processes that sort women into certain jobs, compensate them less than equivalent male counterparts, and create gender disparities in domestic labor that have material and psychosocial consequences.”
Other researchers noted that while not a permanent solution, institutional changes like parental leave and subsidized childcare could reduce the numbers.
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