女性职权越高，抑郁感可能越重

    姑娘们，当你“向前一步”的时候要小心了。因为走出去的结果可能令你难过。

    掌握工作职权，比如聘用、解雇和发薪等权力，以及顺带的社会经济优势，通常会被打工者认为是有利条件，鲜有例外。（从来没有人怀疑谢丽•桑德伯格为什么如此热衷于鼓励女性追求这种权力。）但在美国社会学协会十二月份的《健康与社会行为》杂志（Journal of Health and Social Behavior）上发表的一项最新研究，却从精神健康的角度，对这种观念进行了反驳。

    该项研究由德克萨斯大学奥斯丁分校（University of Texas at Austin）社会学教授泰提雅娜•普德洛夫斯卡娃和爱荷华州立大学（Iowa State University）人类发展与家庭学教授艾米莉亚•克拉克共同主持。两人透过两性关系，研究了工作职权对精神健康的影响。她们发现，大权在握的女性比普通女性表现出更多抑郁症状。而男性则截然相反：掌权男性的抑郁症状，要远远少于不掌权的男性。

    普德洛夫斯卡娃说，研究发现，总体上，女性比男性更容易抑郁：通过对比不掌权的男性和女性，女性表现出的抑郁症状略高于男性。而在对同样掌握工作职权的男性和女性进行对比后，研究却发现，女性表现出的抑郁症状远远高于男性。

    她说：“最突出的是，传统医学社会学理论认为，[通过工作职权获得的]社会经济利益，有利于身体健康；它让你拥有更多财富，意味着你可以接受更好的教育，在精神和身体上更健康。在这些令人羡慕的特性方面，[拥有工作职权的人]具有更多社会优势。”

    可是，为什么身处高位的女性往往会感到情绪低落？

    研究将其归因于女性在“性别分层过程”所体会到的“人际关系压力因素”。研究表示，这些压力因素源自“偏见、歧视、令人不快的陈词滥调、负面的社会干预、缺少来自上级和同事的沟通与支持、需要比男性表现得更优秀来证明自己所面临的压力等。”

    普德洛夫斯卡娃将矛头指向了女性在职场中遭遇的“正统性问题”。她们会“面临阻力，因为她们的权力不符合人们心目中的惯例。”此外，掌权的女性往往会陷入普德洛夫斯卡娃所说的“进退两难的处境”。她们既要保持女性的一面，又要表现出果敢和自信。如果不能平衡这两种特质，她们便会遭到口诛笔伐，要么被说成过于顺从和不称职，要么被认为专横跋扈。

    而男性却可以从掌握工作职权中获益，因为男性掌握权力被认为是正当的，自然而然的。普德洛夫斯卡娃说道：“他们从来不需要克服女性面临的那些阻力和陈腐观念。”

    研究分析了威斯康辛纵向研究（Wisconsin Longitudinal Study）的数据。威斯康辛纵向研究对1957～2004年18～65岁的男性和女性进行了调查。普德洛夫斯卡娃称：“纵向研究中的女性受访者属于第一代职场女性。她们所面临的压力与今天无异——对于年轻女性而依然，甚至更加严重”

    普德洛夫斯卡娃说道：“现在，所有人都在说女性不够自信，没有充分走出去。走出去本身是好事，但一旦你走出去，你便会以为一切都尘埃落定了。”

    然而，事情并没有这么简单。研究称：“在工作职权的结构性方面赶上男性，还远远不够，因为男性和女性行使工作职权有着截然不同的文化意义。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Ladies, be careful when you “lean in.” The results may sadden you.

    Having so-called job authority—the power to hire, fire, and pay people—and the socioeconomic advantage it confers, are typically considered assets in an employee’s life with few, if any exceptions. (There was never any wonder why Sheryl Sandberg was so adamant in urging women to seek it.) But a new study in the December issue of the American Sociological Association’s Journal of Health and Social Behavior tosses that notion aside when it comes to mental health.

    Co-authors Tetyana Pudrovska, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Amelia Karraker, a professor of human development and family studies at Iowa State University, examined the effects of job authority on mental health through the prism of gender relations. They found that women with job authority exhibit more depressive symptoms than women without job authority. The opposite was true for men: those with authority are overall less depressed than men without work-related authority.

    The study takes into account that, in general, women typically suffer from depression more often than men: When men and women without job authority are compared, women have slightly elevated depressive symptoms. When comparing men and women with job authority, however, women with such power show significantly more signs of depression, Pudrovska says.

    “What’s most striking here is the traditional theory in medical sociology is that the socioeconomic advantage [from job authority] is good for health; it gives you more money, it means you probably have better education, and physically and mentally your health is better. [People with work-related authority] are socially advantaged in terms of these desirable characteristics,” she says.

    So, why do women in higher-up positions often feel so down?

    The study blames “interpersonal stressors” that women experience due to the “process of gender stratification.” The stressors that women face stem from “prejudice, discrimination, unfavorable stereotypes, negative social interactions, lack of communication and support from superiors and coworkers, and pressure to perform better than men to prove competence,” the study says.

    Pudrovska points specifically to “the problem of legitimacy” that women confront in the workplace. They “face resistance, since their power is not consistent with what we think the norms are.” Women in power are also caught in what Pudrovska calls a “double bind.” They are expected to express both femininity and assertiveness. If they fail to balance those two qualities, they’re criticized for either being too docile and incompetent or too bossy.

    Meanwhile, men benefit from job authority since their power is considered legitimate and natural. “They don’t have to overcome as much resistance and stereotypes,” Pudrovska says.

    The study looked at data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which followed men and women from age 18 in 1957 to age 65 in 2004. “The female subjects of the study were part of the first generation of women who were well represented in the workforce,” Pudrovska says. The stresses this group felt are just as present—and perhaps more acute—for younger women.

    “Now we’re bombarded with not being confident enough, not leaning in enough,” Pudrovska says. “Leaning in is a good thing in and of itself, but once you do so, the assumption is that everything should fall into place.”

    But it’s hardly ever so simple. “Catching up with men in terms of structural aspects of workplace authority is not sufficient because the cultural meaning of exercising job authority is different for men and women,” the study says.