The SeekHer Foundation has released the 2023 SeekHer Shift Report on ‘Bridging The Gap in Women’s Mental Health’, which emphasizes the importance of safety, trust, and belonging in our community environments to support women’s mental health. The report was based on insights gathered from 1,612 survey respondents across the United States, with support from prominent brands and organizations such as OLLY, RoC Skincare, and Pure Leaf.
The survey responses revealed that women need to reclaim their time, emotional connection, and access to non-judgmental spaces where they can speak up and live authentically. The report also highlighted the lack of emotional safety and security that leads women to feel isolated, even within their social circles. Women are also burdened by external pressures to ‘do it all’ without adequate support, which can negatively impact their self-worth based on their ability to meet family expectations, body and beauty standards, and workplace demands.
The SeekHer Shift findings showed:
- 62% of women say they’ll wait a week or longer to take time for self-care, with nearly half of them indicating they rarely make time and often forget their own needs.
- While 71% of women report emotional support as what they most desire, 58% still struggle to feel connected or have no support within their existing social environment.
- Despite 82% of women surveyed saying they want to live in a world where they can show up as their true selves to feel seen and accepted, over one-third (39%) report challenges around their social identity and worry their social circles won’t accept who they truly are.
- 62% of working women report lacking safe spaces at work where they can routinely open up about juggling their personal and professional lives, with nearly ⅓ (30%) having experienced or witnessed biased treatment in the workplace because of their identity.
- 59% of women who identify as mothers or domestic partners say they often don’t feel supported through their feelings of overwhelm within those roles.
“Women have long internalized their mental health struggles as their own, when in reality, wellness is influenced by the environments we interact with on a daily basis,” said Dr. Monica Mo, founder and Executive Director of SeekHer Foundation. “The fact that we spend on average one-third of our lives at work makes it clear that employers have both an opportunity and responsibility to activate cultures of care that truly value us as the human beings we are.”
