Women and Emotional Labour at Work

Being a woman in the workforce often involves tackling hidden challenges that exist in the blurred lines between job responsibilities and societal expectations. Being warm, empathetic and maternal; the ideals of care and nurturance commonly associated with women are notoriously deeply rooted, but did you know these expectations can extend to the workplace in many ways??

For Mehar, an ambitious business analyst, the pressures of work can be bizarrely contradictory. “Being a woman manager means maintaining a difficult balance between ‘cooperative’ and ‘bossy,’” she says, “and in my work experience, my juniors have often expected leniency and compassion; for me to help them with daily tasks even when I’m overworked, while upper management demanded severity, detached efficiency, and a leader who can handle the ‘tough’ situations at work.” This empathetic warmth was not expected by her coworkers from her male counterparts, whose professional boundaries were respected when they denied overextending themselves in the name of managerial duty. Expressing her feelings about these workplace stressors have been equally challenging. “I constantly feel the need to show I’m tougher than I am -that I’m not a pushover, but I’m also not too bossy. And if I get frustrated or my mood fluctuates, it’s likely I’ll be called ‘dramatic,’ unlike men who are free to be stressed out or angry because they’re ‘just under pressure.’ It’s an exhausting dilemma,” says Mehar.?

Mehar’s experience at work can be defined as ‘emotional labour,’ an underacknowledged type of labour reported by employees in organisational studies, which is when people manage their emotions to feel or express the “right” emotions for a job. The pressure to present a cheerful disposition while suppressing one’s authentic emotions can leave many feeling exhausted and estranged from themselves, and this pressure exists beyond customer-facing “service with a smile” jobs. In the workplace, employees often face implicit or explicit norms that encourage them to display specific emotions to clients, co-workers, and supervisors to fit an idea of “workplace professionalism.” These norms -also known as emotional display rules- can differ across gender, and often prove to be more demanding for women in the workplace.

The burden of emotional labour, especially associated with maintaining one’s professional identity, has been more systemic and insidious for Annu, a seasoned business strategist and manager. She says, “My first job connected me to one of the most competent, ambitious, and compassionate leaders I have ever known. To this day, the lessons I learned from this individual continue to influence my business decisions and leadership style. It did not occur to me at the time that our CEO and MD - both male - would always introduce her like this: "This is XXXX, she has two kids." They never acknowledged her executive title, accomplishments, or dedication to the company. The most frustrating part: they thought they were managing client expectations by planting the seed for her possible limitations rather than highlighting her strengths. So, it wasn't "meet our highly competent female director who seamlessly juggles work and raising her family without skipping a beat," but rather, "meet our female director who might be putting her children before the success of your account." I didn't realise this or take it seriously until my CEO introduced me, and said: "this is Annu, she's not married so she'll never let you down."” Handling such misogynistic instances with contrived smiles proved to be quite frustrating for Annu, and often left her drained and detached.

An interesting 2004 study by Simpson and Stroh on emotional labour reported that women are often expected to express positive emotions and suppress negative emotions in the organisation (while men are expected to do the opposite), experiences echoed by Mehar and Annu’s professional lives. At work, this may look like hiding feelings of anger and sadness in order to avoid clashes with coworkers and supervisors, laughing off offensive jokes to maintain office harmony, being pleasant, likeable and uncomplaining, and having an overall sunny attitude no matter the workload or office atmosphere. The study found that only participants expected to adhere to feminine display rules experienced a sense of inauthenticity. Such rules that align with a culture of toxic workplace positivity can leave women feeling burnt out and frustrated, and also explains why women in the workforce may experience harsher consequences of emotional labour, especially when pressured to express inauthentic emotions.

“As a manager in tech, people don’t take me seriously if I don’t act ‘tough’ like a male manager,” says Bhavna, a no-nonsense tech entrepreneur. “But I’ve also had many people comment on the efficacy of a tech product designed by a woman, and I’ve never had the freedom to express my hurt or anger about the judgement,” she says, “ I could only be ‘nice,’ explain my ideas with a smile, and prove my expertise through work.”

Observing a trend of women tackling poor health and increasing stress at work might encourage some to rally against hiring women in general. However, women are no more vulnerable than men to the negative outcomes associated with emotional labour, because when the effects of the feminine display rules are removed, women actually feel more personally authentic at work than men. While women as a group might be more susceptible than men to face burnout and stress at work because they are expected to conform more to feminine display rules, fostering change in workplace culture to reflect healthy emotional expression can result in increased well-being and productivity.?

Interestingly, research says having female managers and leaders in organisations can even reduce the effect of deeply gendered emotional labour on employees’ stress levels. According to McKinsey and LeanIn.org's annual Women in the Workplace report, senior leaders who identify as women provide emotional support to their teams, help them navigate work/life challenges, and ensure that their workload is manageable. With women accounting for only 20% of the labour force in India -a rapidly decreasing statistic due to high unemployment rates and job stagnation exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic- perhaps a renewed understanding of the impact of work culture, unhealthy expectations of emotional expression, and the hidden potential of women leadership can contribute to positive change and gender inclusivity in the workplace.

Mehar Chhabra is now Entrepreneur In Residence at Tatsam, Bhavna is Co-founder and CPO, Annu is Team Lead for Research and Business Operations

~Shaswati Das, Research Associate at Tatsam

Sources-

Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American journal of sociology, 85(3), 551-575.

Kamdar, B. (2020, July 31). Women left behind: India’s falling female labor participation. The Diplomat.

https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/women-left-behind-indias-falling-female-labor-participation/

Simpson, P. A., & Stroh, L. K. (2004). Gender differences: emotional expression and feelings of personal inauthenticity. Journal of Applied psychology, 89(4), 715.

Thomas, R., Cooper, M., & Urban, K. (2021). Women in the workplace 2021.

World Bank. (2020). Labor force, female (% of total labor force).

Yun, J. A., Lee, Y., & Mastracci, S. (2019). The moderating effect of female managers on job stress and emotional labor for public employees in gendered organizations: Evidence from Korea. Public Personnel Management, 48(4), 535-564.