Burnout in working women doesn’t always seem to be as breakdown. Women appear competent and composed externally but are mentally and emotionally depleted inside. "Symptoms like extreme tiredness, irritability, and lack of good quality sleep, and a persistent sense of missing out on something are mostly ignored as they get busy with managing work and life every day," explains Dr Subbarayalu. They come across so many challenges in sustaining them, lets see some of the core challenges which affects the mental health of the working women.

Work- Life Balance is not the same for men and women. The art of balancing professional and family life is tougher for women even after decades of progress towards gender equality in the society. Many women go through this silent burnout by trying to balance both personal and family responsibilities. Working women in today’s world appear to be more empowered than ever. They are as executives, entrepreneurs, caregivers, and changemakers. But, despite being more empowered many of them feel emotionally and mentally exhausted.

"The pressure to perform and excel at work while handling household responsibilities, parenting, caring elders and partner support creates a huge impact on their physical and mental health. Stress gets builds up slowly for working women, yet instead of acknowledging their stress levels and mental health, many women push them inside and try to keep moving on with a smile," says Dr Yayathee Subbarayalu, Consultant Psychotherapist and Counsellor at Dr Rela Institute and Medical Centre in Chennai.

Managing Career and Caregiving:

Working women are often expected to manage both their career and caregiving. They need to perform full time jobs while managing parenting, household chores and elder care. This monotonous way of working with double burden of career and caregiving adds silent pressure day by day to the women’s mental and physical health.

Societal pressure:

Women are often expected to be successful in which ever work they do, they want them to perform well professionally, be a great parent, be a supportive partner and being actively engaged in family and social gatherings. All these expectations add to their silent mental burnout.

Marital Imbalance:

Married working women face immense pressure, and marital imbalance is one of the huge silent contributors to the burnout. When couples fail to understand each and support one another when both of them choose to work and take care of the family, the need for sharing emotional and household responsibilities becomes a huge task to be sorted amongst them. When conflicts arise, it adds up to the mental burnout.

Lack of family Support:

Working women often seek support from family to manage their workloads at home so they don’t get into burnout stage. Lack of understanding and availability of family support often leaves working women to manage all by themselves slowly adding to the burnout stage.

Workplace Expectations:

Working women need to excel equally as their male counterparts and admitting fatigue is seen as sign of weakness and losing their power and position at work which adds to the mental pressure. Many women often hide their emotions at work to protect their careers.

Solutions by Dr Subbarayalu:

Normalising Mental Health Discussions:

People around working women should normalise mental health discussions, women should check on their emotions frequently and should ventilate them often. Women should also seek support if required from mental health professionals. Planning their daily routine to work life balance is very important to reduce burnout.

Strengthening Family and Spousal Support:

Partners and family members should have open conversation about family needs and goals, should agree upon each other, set boundaries and shared responsibilities. Attending couple counselling sessions will help to get adequate professional support and will help to reduce conflict’s leading to stress.

Workplace Support:

Organisational leaders should recognise signs of burnout early and to provide necessary support. Organisations can provide flexible work schedules, proving childcare facilities, accessible counselling and conducting frequent mental health sessions with experts will help working women to manage their stress and prevent burnout.

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