--- title: Study: Women Get More Depressed Than Men in Positions of Power description: Women in the work place start experiencing more symptoms as they gain job authority; the opposite is true for men canonical: https://time.com/3601505/women-depression-workplace-job-authority/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-23T21:57:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:21.307Z article:section: Health og:title: Study: Women Get More Depressed Than Men in Positions of Power og:description: As women gain job authority, they experience more symptoms of depression. og:url: https://time.com/3601505/women-depression-workplace-job-authority/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Women Get More Depressed Than Men in Positions of Power twitter:description: As women gain job authority, they experience more symptoms of depression. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Women in Positions of Power Show More Signs of Depression Than Men  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 23, 2014 9:57 PM CUT  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 23, 2014 9:57 PM CUT Symptoms of depression become [more prevalent for women as they obtain job authority](http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/11/20/job-authority-women-depression/ "undefined") but less prevalent for men, a new study from the University of Texas at Austin suggests. Researchers looked at 1,300 middle-aged men and 1,500 middle-aged women for the study, “Gender, Job Authority and Depression,” which appears in the December issue of the _Journal of Health and Social Behavior_. Women with the ability to affect pay and fire and hire others had more symptoms of depression than women without such authority. Men with similar authority at work had fewer symptoms of depression than those without, the study reports. “What’s striking is that women with job authority in our study are advantaged in terms of most characteristics that are strong predictors of positive mental health,” said sociologist Tetyana Pudrovska. “These women have more education, higher incomes, more prestigious occupations, and higher levels of job satisfaction and autonomy than women without job authority. Yet, they have worse mental health than lower-status women.” One explanation is that women face more stressors at work when in positions of power because they are faced with overcoming more stereotypes and resistance to their leadership. Men, on the other hand, don’t appear to face such obstacles. “Men in positions of authority are consistent with the expected status beliefs, and male leadership is accepted as normative and legitimate,” Pudrovska said. “This increases men’s power and effectiveness as leaders and diminishes interpersonal conflict.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3601505/women-depression-workplace-job-authority/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3601505/women-depression-workplace-job-authority/"},"headline":"Women in Positions of Power Show More Signs of Depression Than Men","datePublished":"2014-11-23T21:57:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:21.307Z","description":"A study found that women in the workplace experience more symptoms as they gain job authority, while the opposite is true for men","url":"https://time.com/3601505/women-depression-workplace-job-authority/","keywords":["Mental Health","Living","Depression","Workplace"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-health/","name":"Mental Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3601505/women-depression-workplace-job-authority/","name":"Women in Positions of Power Show More Signs of Depression Than Men"}}]}] ```