Gender differences in burnout: A meta-analysis

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Abstract

The literature on male–female differences in burnout has produced inconsistent results regarding the strength and direction of this relationship. Lack of clarity on gender differences in organizationally relevant phenomena, such as work burnout, frequently generates ungrounded speculations that may (mis)inform organizational decisions. To address this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis of the relationship between gender and burnout using 409 effect sizes from 183 studies. Results challenge the commonly help belief that female employees are more likely to experience burnout than male employees, revealing instead that women are slightly more emotionally exhausted than men (δ = .10), while men are somewhat more depersonalized than women (δ = −.19). Although these effects are small, they are practically noteworthy when translated into a percent overlap statistic. Moderator analyses further revealed some intriguing nuances to the general trends, such as larger gender differences in the USA compared to the EU. In contrast, gender differences did not vary significantly in male-typed vs. female-typed occupations. Our analyses also suggest discontinuation of the use of overall burnout measures because they are highly consistent with the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout only.

Section snippets

Burnout: a female experience?

Speculations that burnout occurs more frequently among women are not uncommon (Maslach et al., 2001). Such speculations may be dangerous for two reasons. First, at the workplace, work peers and superiors may perceive women as more likely to burn out than men. Research shows that individuals stereotypically assume that women are more susceptible to stress—and by extension to burnout—than men (Matlin, 2004). Even trained clinicians and physicians are not exempt from such assumptions as they are

The moderating effects of occupational gender typing on the gender-burnout link

Despite significant increases in the number of women in the workplace globally (International Labor Office, 2007) and the equal representation of the sexes in some occupations (e.g., journalism), most occupations remain gender-typed. Women are frequently employed in occupations that fit stereotypes about female gender roles (e.g., caregiving/nurturing occupations, support/administrative occupations), and men are typically employed in occupations that fit stereotypes about male gender roles

Literature search

We used two strategies for obtaining effect sizes. First, computerized databases, including PsycINFO (1872–2005), Business Source Premier, Academic Search Premier, The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Contemporary Women's Issues, ERIC, Education Full Text, MedLine, PubMed, Social Work Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts, were used to locate relevant peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. The following key words were used: burnout, emotional exhaustion,

Results

The first objective of the present meta-analysis was to assess whether there were differences between men and women in the two core components of work-related burnout: emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Results can be found in Table 1. The mean effect size for emotional exhaustion is .10 (t = 6.46, p < .01), with a 95% confidence interval of .07 to .13. The significant d-value, coupled with the tight 95% CI that excludes zero, demonstrate that the obtained effect is distinguishable from

Discussion

In the present study, we had two primary goals: (a) to determine the average effect size for gender differences in work-related burnout, and (b) to reveal the extent to which gender differences vary according to the gender typing of occupations and the degree to which labor policies are socially progressive. We pursued the first goal to test a commonly held belief—that women are more burnt-out than men. We pursued the second goal to test the explanatory accuracy of recent theoretical

Acknowledgments

We thank our research assistants James Harrison, Ellen Kleiner, Carrie Kreissl, Katie Nelson, Brittany Holmquist, and Emily Wilson for their help with this project.

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    Note: Studies noted by an asterisk (*) were only included in the calculation of the average reliabilities for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization used to compare to the value we imputed for studies missing reliability information in the meta-analytic sample.

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