How Leaders can support Women’s Mental Health at the workplace

In many organizations, people are moving toward the importance of Mental health and wellness but struggling in the action phase. When it comes to Mental health, dealing with Women’s mental health is a bit different, and challenging and requires special effort to understand, explore the facts, and give the right solution and support to the suffering.

I know many leaders who advocate the importance of Mental health in the workplace but fail to fulfill it because of a lack of awareness about the differences between the Men and Women’s needs in their workplace.

Here are some key areas you have to focus on when you want to support Women’s health in the workplace:

Before entering into the key areas, it is essential to know about, what kind of challenges a woman is facing in her workplace. Here is the link to read, you will be shocked when you come to know about the challenges. Indeed, even women are not aware of their in-depth challenges, that why many times, they don’t know the reason for their stress. I have explored in detail in that article which definitely is an eye-opener for many people.

Many data are taken from my patients, friends, and myself {I have identified it when I think retrospectively during my healing journey}. After reading that article, my friend praised me that she was able to resonate with each and every point, and the closest fact she feels is “Women are judged on their achievements and Men are judged on their potential”.

So being a leader, you should be aware of the basic areas where a woman faces challenges. Here are some steps that support you in your deeds.

Mental Health Awareness:

As a leader, you can build awareness about Mental health workshops or training in order to provide baseline knowledge about mental health and wellness, demystifying the myths and considering intersectionality which is acknowledging that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression.

Without the intersectional lens, it is difficult for you to provide a platform that gives importance to women’s mental health.

“Intersectionality is such a vital framework for understanding systems of power because ‘woman’ is not a catchall category that alone defines all our relationships to power” – Zoe Samudzi Feminist writer

Make policies:

When you are aware of the areas where women face challenges, you can reanalyze and then focus on making structural policies that eventually become a part of social life in the workplace.

Eg:

Basic awareness about the prescriptive bias dumped on women assists them in preventing stress and burnout. She doesn’t need to prove it again and again through success, instead, she will focus on skills and competencies.
Creating policies that stop gender-based pay inequity, giving space for maternity leaves, and focusing on flexibility in working hours.
Formulating policies that consider the working opportunities for women who had a career gap because of their life transitions like marriage, childbirth, and cultural impacts.
POSH {Prevention of Sexual Harassment} awareness and committee formation

Do Assessments:

Being a thought leader, you may create awareness and policies that support women’s mental health. But one that fulfills your vision is assessing the steps and actions.

Do regular surveys

Focus on female employee engagement programs
Check out the retention rate and attrition rate of employees.
Assessing and measuring your actionable paths not only the data of your deeds but also provides you the awareness and further proceedings.

Be Authentic:

Though how many policies you make, and how many orders you put in, it does not have a similar impact to role-modeling. Indeed, be a role model and create space for women to step out and advocate for their own.

Be vulnerable, to talk about your own mental health sufferings and how you overcome those sufferings. It generates women to DE stigmatize their mental sufferings and supports them to step out from that.
Just ask them personally, “How are you? Are you comfortable? Is there anything you want to discuss with me?”
Consider her time management challenges and help her to work on her own without compromising the organization’s overall financial health.

First, you should practice proper time management, a healthy work-life balance, and live a harmonious life. This boosts your female employees’ navigate to positive change and assists them to achieve their mental health – Be the change.