Women Are More Stressed at Home Than at Work

There is a new study that validates the thought that passes through our minds on Sunday nights after spending the weekend with our families: God, I can’t wait to get back to the office and relax.

For the study from the Council on Contemporary Families, three Penn State researchers measured people’s cortisol levels—a biological marker of stress—and found it tended to be higher at home than at work. And while they found that both men and women have reduced levels at stress at work than at home, it seemed to be more apparent with women.

[W]omen may get more renewal from work than men, because unlike men, they report themselves happier at work than at home. It is men, not women, who report being happier at home than at work.

That’s probably because the division of housework is still imbalanced in many families, with women taking on more chores than men. Men leave work and go home. Women leave work and go home to work some more.