While men and women have similar rates of mental health conditions overall, women face specific challenges around mental health in the workplace. Some are tied to gender roles and stereotypes, and some are intersectional in nature. Mental health is intersectional, since identity markers such as race and gender shape an individual’s experience; it’s also an emerging diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) category in and of itself.

The list of challenges affecting women is long. For one, women are more prone to certain diagnoses. They are twice as likely as men to experience depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and PTSD, and much more likely to battle eating disorders. Pay inequity, caregiving responsibilities, and gender-based violence are among the contributing risk factors to common mental health conditions. Infertility, menopause, and postpartum depression also affect many. Physical and emotional caregiving roles — as daughters, mothers, colleagues, and even leaders — result in heavier burdens. Then there’s being underrepresented in leadership at work, navigating “double only” status as a woman of color or member of the LGBTQ+ community, enduring sexual harassment, dealing with imposter syndrome, juggling parental leave, and having office housekeeping roles. Many of these challenges are largely invisible, since women may be reluctant to discuss them at all, much less at work.