Women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety and depression as men, and the higher their education and income level, the more likely they are to treat their symptoms with alcohol.
Drunk driving arrests are skyrocketing and record numbers of women are seeking treatment for alcohol abuse.
In Her Best Kept Secret, author and journalist Gabrielle Glazier points out all the regular contributing factors behind the female drinking epidemic: stress, career disappointment and the difficulties balancing work and a family life.
But what about the dreary soullessness of the business-as-usual system women find themselves immersed in? Perhaps another reason for female depression and anxiety is the fact that there’s no heart, compassion or cooperation found at the Top of the Heap?
Check out the two new VP’s at Screw You, Inc. talking to the CEO before heading into the next board meeting. The first is a man and second a woman.
“Congrats on helping finalize the merger Harry,” says the CEO.
‘Thanks George. I suppose there’s a bonus hidden somewhere in those contract negotiations?” he says, winking conspiratorially.
“You got it,” says Mr. CEO slapping him on the back. “Golf Sunday?”
After the board meeting Harry goes off to a late martini lunch then stops by the Audi showroom on his way home. But imagine the possible trajectory for a female VP in the same situation.
She was the brains behind the merger and as a VP she’s finally in a position of power. Which means she has a voice in how things are done for a change. Excited and challenged she bumps into Mr. George CEO on the way to the boardroom.
“Congrats on helping Harry finalize the merger Jane,” says George.
She didn’t help Harry finalize the merger. Harry helped her. But she smiles, swallowing the slight. “Thanks George. So what happens to the redundant employees in admin?”
“What do you mean? They get laid off.”
“And the factory workers at the plants we’re closing?”
“Same thing.”
“But George, what about their families? In this economy they’ll never survive.” She speeds on, ignoring George’s sudden frozen look. “I’ve been working up a plan for a reeducation and relocation plan that wouldn’t cost us much that would be easy to implement and … ”
George cuts her off abruptly, doesn’t invite her to golf on Sunday and walks off thinking he made a mistake giving her a VP position and starts making plans to get rid of her.
And Jane? She would never have actually said that. She might have thought it. But she knows better than to go there—as do most of the other Jane’s in the corporate world who keep their emotions packed away on ice and their lips zipped. They nod, ask for a bonus and go home and worry about the terrible things happening to the families of the newly unemployed factory workers they helped to create.
And we wonder why women in higher echelon positions are drinking so much more these days? I don’t.