What Gender Expectations Cost Women at Midlife

Women report more stress and more burnout than men, and the gap widens at midlife, when role expectations at work and at home tend to concentrate. This study asked whether the gendered traits and stereotypes a woman holds about herself are part of that picture. Three hundred and one women aged 40 to 65 in the United States and the United Kingdom completed measures of gendered traits, endorsement of gender stereotypes, perceived stress and burnout. The pattern was not a simple one. Stronger feminine traits went with lower work-related burnout, while stronger personal masculine traits went with lower perceived stress and lower personal burnout, suggesting that different facets of self-concept map onto different facets of depletion rather than one protective quality doing all the work. Where the evidence stops: this is a single cross-sectional survey collected in 2018, so it shows association rather than cause, and self-selected online samples are not representative. It is useful as a reminder that burnout at midlife is shaped by the roles a woman is expected to occupy, not only by her workload.