Although many surveys, such as the Lexmark survey published at CNN Money this week say that most people (75%) have "too much to do" at the holidays, these surveys may not be taking gender differences into account. The Lexmark survey had only 29% men in their online sample. An article in The Guardian (2007, UK) cites the Mental Health Foundation on a holiday stress figures: 46% of women find the holidays highly stressful compared to 37% of men. The article also says that 41% of women are "exhausted" by the end of the holidays, compared to 31% of men. Doctor Claire Wheeler, quoted in an article in the Bend Bulletin (Oregon, 2007) says women worry more at the holidays because they "take more responsibility for everybody’s emotional well-being." Men, Wheeler suggests, tend to just worry about money.
Argh. I took longer writing this than I meant to. I freely admit: I meant to half-ass this today, because I'm running a little late. I have a habit that probably preserves my health, but really annoys me. The more stressed out I get, the more likely I am to oversleep. If things get really bad, I'll pass out in the middle of the day, in my chair or on the couch. Stress makes me, if not sleepy, exhausted, and I lose control of whether I go to sleep. It's inconvenient.
Hm. I wonder if Claire Wheeler thought worrying about money was less stressful because she's a woman, or if I read it that way because I used to be.
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Believe me, I worry about money, too. In general I don't like broad statements that divide people up by gender - but in the case of the APA survey and a bunch of other stress-related research, it seems that more men than women are affected by money/occupational stress and more women than men are affected by interpersonal stress. Of course that's not true for everyone!
With respect to money, I think a lot of single moms (like me) feel plenty of financial stress to go along with the rest of it. I've met lots and lots of exceptions to every statistic I've ever read, so I try to be careful to present them as just that - aggregate information that may not apply to each individual.
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