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Psychological Wellbeing, Workplace Challenges, and Work-Life
Balance Among Working Women: A Systematic Review
Lakshmi Priya T B
1
, Dr. M Prathapan
2
1
Research Scholar, School of Management studies and Commerce, Vels Institute of Science, Technology
and Advanced Studies
2
Associate Professor, School of Management studies and Commerce, Vels Institute of Science,
Technology and Advanced Studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51583/IJLTEMAS.2026.150600201
Received: 06 July 2026; Accepted: 11 July 2026; Published: 21 July 2026
ABSTRACT
This systematic review synthesises findings from 48 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2026
on the wellbeing, occupational stress, and workplace experiences of working women. Drawing on a Scopus-
indexed corpus, the review identifies seven key thematic areas: psychological wellbeing and mental health,
workplace harassment and bullying, work-life balance and family conflict, gender inequality, industry-specific
occupational stress, physical health and body image, and relationships and domestic life. Findings consistently
highlight that working women face compounding stressors arising from dual role demands, hostile work
environments, gender-based inequalities, and inadequate organisational support. Evidence-based interventions
such as mindfulness, internet-based therapies, flexible work policies, and physical activity programmes are
identified as promising strategies to improve wellbeing outcomes. The review calls for targeted organisational
policies and broader structural reforms to promote equitable, healthy workplaces for women across sectors and
geographies.
Keywords: working women; psychological wellbeing; workplace stress; harassment; work-life balance; gender
inequality; occupational health
INTRODUCTION
The participation of women in the global workforce has grown substantially over recent decades, bringing
renewed scholarly attention to the unique occupational challenges they face. While women's employment is
widely recognised as essential to individual empowerment, household economic stability, and national
development, working women continue to encounter a distinct set of stressors that can compromise their
psychological and physical wellbeing. These stressors include dual role demands at home and at work, gender-
based discrimination and harassment, limited organisational support, and structural inequalities embedded in
workplace cultures and policies.
The growing body of research on working women's wellbeing reflects the complexity of these challenges.
Studies have examined psychological wellbeing (PWB) using multiple frameworks, including Ryff's eudaimonic
model (Sasaki et al., 2023; Okojide et al.,2023), subjective wellbeing measures (Chen and Hu,2024; Asadullah
and Talukder,2019), and occupational health perspectives (Prasad and Vaidya,2021; Malathi and Srilatha,2025).
Despite this diversity of approaches, there remains a need for a comprehensive synthesis that maps the full
landscape of evidence across thematic domains.
This systematic review aims to fill that gap by critically examining 60 Scopus-indexed studies published between
2015 and 2026. The review is organised around seven key themes identified through thematic analysis of the
corpus: psychological wellbeing and mental health, workplace harassment and bullying, work-life balance and
family conflict, gender inequality, industry-specific occupational stress, physical health and body image, and
relationships and domestic life. By integrating evidence across these themes, this review provides a holistic
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understanding of the determinants and consequences of wellbeing among working women, and offers directions
for future research and policy.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The present study adopted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach to examine the determinants and
dimensions of psychological well-being among working women. The review was conducted in accordance with
the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework to ensure a
systematic, transparent, and replicable review process. The study aimed to synthesize existing empirical
literature related to psychological well-being, mental health, workplace experiences, and socio-personal
challenges affecting employed women.
Identification
Records identified through database searching
(n = 177)
↓
Screening
Records after date filter applied (2015–2026)
(n = 124)
↓
Eligibility
Records screened by subject area
(n = 60)
↓
Eligibility
Full-text articles assessed for eligibility
(n = 60)
↓
Included
Studies included in final systematic review
(n = 48)
Database Selection
The review was carried out using the Scopus database. Scopus was selected due to its extensive coverage of
peer-reviewed scholarly literature and its strong indexing of high-quality journals in the fields of social sciences,
psychology, and management studies.
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Search Strategy
A comprehensive search strategy was developed using relevant keywords associated with psychological well-
being and working women. The search string employed for data collection was:
TITLE-ABS-KEY(("psychological well-being" OR "psychological wellbeing" OR "mental well-being" OR
"mental wellbeing" OR "emotional well-being") AND ("working women" OR "working woman" OR "female
employees" OR "women employees" OR "working females" OR "employed women" OR "women workforce"))
AND ( LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA,"BUSI" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA,"PSYC" ) OR LIMIT-TO (
SUBJAREA,"SOCI" ) ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE,"ar" ) ) AND PUBYEAR > 2014 AND PUBYEAR <
2025
The search was restricted to studies published between 2015 and 2026 to capture contemporary developments
and recent research trends related to women employees’ well-being.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
To ensure the relevance and quality of the selected studies, inclusion and exclusion criteria were established.
Inclusion Criteria
Studies were included if they:
Focused on psychological well-being, emotional well-being, mental health, or related psychosocial
factors.
Examined working women, female employees, or employed women.
Were published between 2015 and 2026.
Were indexed in the Scopus database.
Belonged to the subject areas of:
o Social Sciences,
o Psychology, and
o Business, Management and Accounting.
Were peer-reviewed empirical journal articles published in English.
Exclusion Criteria
Studies were excluded if they:
Focused on populations other than working women.
Addressed only physical health without psychological or emotional dimensions.
Were review papers, conference proceedings, editorials, dissertations, or book chapters.
Lacked empirical findings or thematic relevance.
Were duplicate or incomplete records.
Data Extraction and Thematic Analysis
Relevant information from the selected studies was systematically extracted and organized under predefined
categories such as:
Author(s) and year,
Country and sector,
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Research objectives,
Research methodology,
Key variables, and
Major findings.
The selected studies were analysed using thematic analysis to identify recurring issues, determinants, and
dimensions influencing psychological well-being among working women. Based on the synthesis of the
literature, the findings were categorized into the following major themes: Psychological Well-being and Mental
Health, Workplace Harassment and Bullying, Work–Life Balance and Family Conflict, Gender Inequality,
Industry-Specific Occupational Stress, Physical Health and Body Image, Relationships and Domestic Life.
Reliability and Validity
The reliability and validity of the review were ensured through a systematic search strategy, clearly defined
inclusion and exclusion criteria, careful screening of studies, and thematic categorization of findings. Only peer-
reviewed Scopus-indexed journal articles were included to maintain academic rigor and quality.
Ethical Considerations
The study relied entirely on secondary data obtained from published scholarly articles. Since no human
participants were directly involved, ethical approval was not required. However, proper acknowledgment and
citation of all reviewed studies were maintained throughout the research process.
FINDINGS
Psychological Wellbeing and Mental Health
The largest cluster of studies in this review (n = 22) focused on psychological wellbeing (PWB) and mental
health outcomes among working women. In this field various conceptual frameworks have been used including
Ryff’s six-dimensional model of eudaimonic wellbeing, general measures of subjective wellbeing and distress.
(Sasaki N,2023) conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of a fully automated internet-
based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (iACT) program, ‘Happiness Mom’, for 841 working mothers with
preschool children. They found statistically significant improvement in positive relationships with others after
the 10-week intervention, but overall effect sizes were modest (Cohen's d = 0.18). The authors found that fully
automated iACT has potential as a scalable preventive intervention but requires further programme refinement
to have wider impact on Ryff's six dimensions of PWB.
(Yang,2025) studied the impact of inclusive leadership on the work environment in service organizations.
Drawing on social identity theory, the study demonstrated the chain mediation model in which inclusive
leadership facilitated relational identification and job embeddedness, which in turn led to increased employee
wellbeing. Importantly, gender moderated several pathways in the model, suggesting that the wellbeing benefits
of inclusive leadership may differ systematically for male and female employees.
The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on working women was especially in focus. A
longitudinal study was conducted in Germany (Meyer et al.,2021) to examine the impact of pandemic-related
demands including mandatory home working, closures of childcare facilities, job insecurity and work-privacy
conflicts on the deterioration of psychological wellbeing over time. Social support and autonomy as resources
buffered some of these negative effects, yet women with young children were still disproportionately affected.
Similarly, Prasad and Vaidya (2021) studied women working remotely in the IT-enabled sector in India during
COVID-19 and found that increased occupational stress had a direct negative effect on both work-life balance
and psychological wellbeing.
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Beyond pandemic contexts, research has examined PWB in relation to specific life circumstances. Öcel (2017)
studied the working women with breast cancer diagnosis (N = 170) and concluded that psychological resilience
was a moderator between mindfulness, stigmatisation and wellbeing. High resilience buffered the negative
effects of stigma, while mindfulness was an independent predictor of better wellbeing outcomes. (Robinson et
al.,2015) also discussed the challenges breast cancer survivors face in the workplace, finding that women made
careful, strategic communication decisions about disclosure, weighing the need for social support against fears
of stigma and career penalty.
(Zapata-Matheus and Ariza-Ruiz ,2026) took this line of inquiry further, exploring the impact of labour market
precariousness and poor maternity provisions on mental health among pregnant and breastfeeding women
employees in Colombia. (Skica and Miszczyński,2025) studied the PWB of self-employed women in the
European context. They found that self-employment provides flexibility but it is not a neutral role in terms of
wellbeing and it can expose women to various stressors related to financial insecurity and role ambiguity.
The role of organisational and psychosocial factors as predictors of PWB has been studied in several studies.
(Kamil et al.,2024) found that gender moderated the relationship between psychological wellbeing and work
motivation in the public sector, with female employees showing distinct patterns of motivation-wellbeing
linkages compared to male counterparts. Soomro et al.,2023) found that psychological resilience mediated the
association between sensitivity to terrorism and employee PWB in conflict-affected settings; the results were
generally applicable to male and female workers.
Family and social capital were found to be important buffers of PWB . (Maiti & Sanyal,2023) examined
organizational commitment among working women in India and discovered that loneliness and family
responsibilities were significant predictors of commitment levels and that wellbeing was inherently tied to how
women managed these competing demands.
Mindfulness based approaches received increased attention in the latter years of the review period. (Rajeswari
et al.,2025) studied the association between mindfulness and mental wellbeing of working women working in
the IT sector of Tamil Nadu, India and found emotional regulation as significant mediator. This result is
consistent with the findings of (Öcel,2017) and indicates that mindfulness-based interventions may be a feasible
means of supporting the mental health of working women. Barnard (2018) also offered a qualitative perspective
by exploring how women constructed metaphors of strength and resilience in their stories of wellbeing,
highlighting the value of eudaimonic frameworks that focus on agency and personal growth, rather than deficit-
oriented models.
(Divyakala and Vasumathi,2025) demonstrated that the conflict management climate significantly moderated
the effects of psychological wellbeing and emotional exhaustion on productivity, highlighting the organisational
conditions necessary for individual wellbeing to be translated into performance outcomes. (Zakharova et
al.,2020) explored subjective wellbeing as an emotional regulator of labour behaviour among female personnel
of Russian industrial and medical companies, noting age-related variation in wellbeing profiles and the
significance of organisational culture in shaping wellbeing experiences.
Workplace Harassment and Bullying
Several studies in this review focused on workplace harassment and bullying, which demonstrates the prevalence
and severity of these threats to the wellbeing and performance of working women. Research within this theme
included sexual harassment, general workplace bullying, incivility and the emerging area of cyberbullying.
Hitlan (2025) examined the impact of sexual harassment, both direct and bystander, among a sample of 314
female part-time employees. Results indicated that both forms of harassment were associated with greater job
stress, poorer work attitudes, more withdrawal behaviors, and poorer psychological wellbeing. The inclusion of
bystander harassment is important because women do not have to be the target of harassment to be negatively
affected – witnessing harassment of others produces similar effects on wellbeing.
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(Xie and Zheng,2022) gave a structural analysis of the organisational conditions that enable harassment. Their
research looked at masculinity contest culture (MCC) – characterized by norms of dominance, aggression and
emotional suppression – as a predictor of both sexual harassment and bullying. Results of a cross-sectional
convenience sample supported that MCC was positively associated with interpersonal mistreatment and
negatively associated with occupational and psychological wellbeing. These findings indicate that workplace
culture is a systemic determinant of harassment, not an individual or dyadic phenomenon.
Mehmood et al.,(2024) investigated the impact of workplace bullying (WB) and workplace incivility (WI) on
employee performance in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and discovered that both WB and WI were significant
negative predictors of employee performance. Psychological wellbeing mediated this association, suggesting
that the performance costs of bullying are borne partly by deteriorating mental health. (Divyakala and
Vasumathi,2025) also studied bullying in the leather industry and found that workplace bullying leads to
psychological effects such as decreased self-efficacy and productivity losses, and used Albert Bandura’s social
cognitive theory as a theoretical basis.
(Vasumathi et al.,2025) conducted a systematic review of the effects of workplace bullying on women’s
performance, revealing consistent relationships between bullying, emotional exhaustion and decreased
psychological wellbeing across a number of studies. Their results add to the argument that emotional exhaustion
is an important mechanism in the bullying-performance relationship. This review exposes the cumulative nature
of these effects, beyond the superficial, particularly for women who manage domestic duties simultaneously.
Demographic dissimilarity has been introduced as a boundary condition that moderates the effects of workplace
incivility on women (Oyet et al.,2019). The negative impact of incivility on wellbeing and turnover intention
was more pronounced for women who perceived themselves to be demographically different from their
workgroup in terms of race, age or other characteristics. This research underscores the interconnectedness of
identity and workplace mistreatment and the need for greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion in incivility
research. (Di Marco et al.,2018) made a methodological contribution to the field by developing and validating a
Spanish language version of the Workplace Incivility Scale that was invariant across employment status, thereby
expanding the measurement toolkit available to researchers in non-English speaking contexts.
Al Doghan and Arshad (2023) examined the emerging issue of workplace cyberbullying among female
employees and found that online harassment was related to increased psychological stress, decreased job
satisfaction, lower organisational commitment and perceptions of interactional injustice. (Rotimi et al.,2023)
examined the construction industry in New Zealand and discovered that sexism and adverse job conditions had
a considerable detrimental effect on women’s mental and physical wellbeing, with work morale as an intervening
variable..
Work-Life Balance and Family Conflict
Many studies addressed the challenge of work-life balance (WLB) and work-family conflict, confirming that the
management of competing professional and domestic demands remains one of the most pressing concerns for
working women globally.
(Sultana et al.,2023) explored the WLB experiences of female professionals in Bangladesh's corporate sector
through qualitative email interviews with 29 participants. Their findings identified heavy household
responsibilities, inadequate childcare facilities, lack of flexible working arrangements, and unsupportive
organisational cultures as key barriers to WLB. The study highlighted how these structural deficits forced women
to self-manage the work-family interface, often at significant cost to their psychological wellbeing and career
progression.
(Fazal et al.,2022) conducted a systematic review of WLB challenges during COVID-19 in Pakistan,
synthesising eight qualitative studies using inductive thematic analysis. Their findings documented that the
pandemic exacerbated pre-existing WLB pressures for working women, as the collapse of boundaries between
home and work led to simultaneous intensification of both professional and domestic demands. Individual coping
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strategies and organisational support measures both moderated these effects, though support was found to be
inconsistent and often inadequate.
(Shepherd-Banigan et al.,2015) examined the relationship between workplace stressors, home working, and
maternal depressive symptoms among employed women with young children in the United States. Family-
friendly workplace attributes — including schedule flexibility and supportive supervisors — were found to
significantly attenuate depressive symptomatology. These findings provide empirical support for the importance
of family-responsive workplace policies as a mental health intervention, particularly for mothers of young
children.
(Prasad and Vaidya,2021) pointed to the need for proactive psychosocial design of virtual work environments.
(Blazovich et al.,2018) investigated mother-friendly company policies — including flexible working, on-site
childcare, and family leave — and their relationship to financial performance and employee wellbeing. Findings
indicated that companies rated highly on mother-friendly measures also demonstrated stronger job satisfaction
and emotional wellbeing among female employees, with some evidence of a positive relationship to corporate
financial performance. This study situates WLB as a business case as much as a social justice concern.
(Kumari,2024) investigated job-home balance (JHB) among rural women employees in Bangalore Rural District,
India, identifying key determinants of balance difficulty including commuting burden, domestic responsibilities,
and absence of organisational support. The study found that service sector employees faced particular challenges
in maintaining JHB.
(De Moortel et al.,2017) examined the relationship between working hours mismatch — defined as involuntarily
working more or fewer hours than desired — and mental wellbeing in Europe. Using European Social Survey
data, the authors found that both forms of mismatch predicted poor mental wellbeing, with national
unemployment rates and GDP growth moderating the strength of these associations. This study situates WLB
within macroeconomic conditions and highlights the importance of structural labour market factors in shaping
women's wellbeing.
(Verma et al.,2018) examined gender-sensitive practices and family support as predictors of psychological
wellbeing among women in Indian call centres. Using crossover theory, the study demonstrated that supportive
gender-sensitive workplace practices predicted lower stress, higher job satisfaction, greater organisational
commitment, and lower turnover intentions. Family support showed complementary crossover effects,
reinforcing the importance of both organisational and domestic support systems in protecting women's
wellbeing.
Gender Inequality
Several studies addressed gender inequality as a direct or moderating determinant of working women's
wellbeing. Research in this domain spanned gender role attitudes, supervisory gender dynamics, the gender pay
gap, and women's autonomy.
(Chen and Hu,2024) examined the relationship between income, gender role attitudes, and subjective wellbeing
among 9,898 married women in China, drawing on the culturally distinctive rice-wheat agricultural boundary as
a natural experiment. Their findings demonstrated that women in rice-growing regions — where more egalitarian
gender norms prevail — showed stronger income-wellbeing linkages than women in wheat-growing regions
with more traditional gender role attitudes. This study makes a methodologically novel contribution to
understanding how deeply embedded cultural norms around gender shape the economic determinants of women's
happiness.
(Choeni et al.,2025) investigated gender inequality in the South African banking sector, drawing on the capability
approach to argue for the importance of voice climate in promoting gender equality and wellbeing. Women in
the banking sector faced persistent disparities in pay, career progression, and leadership representation, and a
supportive voice climate — in which women felt able to express concerns without retaliation — was identified
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as a key protective factor for wellbeing. This study highlights the intersection of structural inequality and
organisational climate in determining women's daily wellbeing experiences.
(Asadullah and Talukder,2019) documented the 'paradox of the contented female worker' in Bangladesh's ready-
made garments sector, finding that despite objectively poor wages and working conditions relative to male
counterparts, female garment workers reported comparable or higher levels of subjective emotional wellbeing.
The authors attributed this paradox to low reference group comparisons, limited aspirations shaped by
constrained opportunity structures, and the relative empowerment conferred by paid employment compared to
the domestic alternative. This finding challenges simplistic mappings between objective inequality and
subjective wellbeing, while also raising normative concerns about the adequacy of wellbeing self-reports as
welfare indicators.
(Barnard,2018) explored wellbeing and gender inequality through a qualitative phenomenological lens, finding
that women in midlife constructed rich eudaimonic narratives of strength, resilience, and purposeful living that
resisted deficit framings of their multiple role burdens. This research underscores the importance of capturing
subjective meaning-making in wellbeing research, rather than relying solely on standardised scales that may not
capture the full complexity of women's lived experiences.
(Kumar et al.,2024) investigated the concept of autonomy as a component of wellbeing among Indian women,
finding that autonomy was experienced as multidimensional and contextually contingent, shaped by family,
community, and occupational norms. (Yadav et al.,2022) extended the analysis of gender inequality to early life
course events in Bihar, India, demonstrating that school dropout, early marriage, and early childbearing — all
linked to gendered social norms — were significantly associated with depression and poor mental health in
young adult women, illustrating how gender inequality in education and reproduction translates into lasting
wellbeing deficits.
(Krueger,2017) provided macroeconomic context for understanding gender and employment, documenting
declining labour force participation rates in the United States, with differential patterns across demographic
groups including women. While this study was not exclusively focused on women's wellbeing, its findings
provide important background for understanding the structural conditions within which working women's
experiences are embedded.
Industry-Specific Occupational Stress
Some studies focused on occupational stress in specific industrial and sectoral contexts, providing sector-level
detail that complements the broader thematic findings.
(Liu et al.,2020) conducted a large survey study in Taiwan examining the associations between ergonomic and
psychosocial work hazards and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) across a wide range of occupational groups.
Their findings confirmed that both ergonomic exposures (such as repetitive motion and awkward posture) and
psychosocial hazards (such as work pressure and low job control) were independently and additively associated
with MSD risk in specific body parts. These findings are particularly relevant for women workers, who are
disproportionately represented in occupational groups characterised by high ergonomic and psychosocial
burden, such as data entry, assembly, and care work.
(Sharma and Srivastava,2020) developed and validated a scale for measuring organisational stress among women
workers in the Indian garment industry, identifying job-related, organisation-related, personal, and social factors
as distinct sources of stress. Their scale addresses a significant methodological gap, as most stress measurement
instruments were developed for general or male-dominated workforce samples and may not adequately capture
the gendered nature of stress in female-intensive industries.
(Rotimi et al.,2023) examined women's wellbeing in the construction industry in New Zealand, finding that
sexism and poor job conditions significantly harmed mental and physical wellbeing, with work morale mediating
these relationships. The construction industry represents one of the most gender-imbalanced sectors globally,
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and this study documents the specific mechanisms through which the minority status and hostile cultural
environment of women in construction translates into wellbeing deficits.
(Malathi and Srilatha,2025) examined work stress among women in the Indian IT industry, documenting high
levels of occupational stress driven by long working hours, demanding performance targets, and inadequate
recognition. (B et al.,2021) further examined IT women professionals in urban Bangalore during COVID-19,
finding that extended periods of work from home during the pandemic were associated with deteriorating
wellbeing, compounded by physical distancing from social support networks and the challenges of integrating
professional and domestic demands in shared household spaces.
(Devi et al.,2024) proposed an innovative approach to stress management in educational institutions, using
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Federated Learning to predict stress levels from physiological and
demographic data collected via wearable technology. This privacy-preserving, data-driven approach represents
a significant methodological advance in personalised stress management for working women, though the authors
acknowledge that further validation in diverse institutional contexts is needed.
(Zakharova et al.,2020) examined subjective wellbeing among female personnel in Russian innovative
companies, finding age-related variation in wellbeing profiles. Younger women showed greater resilience in
adapting to Industry 4.0 transformations, while older female workers experienced higher fatigue and stress in
technologically changing environments. De Moortel et al.,2017) examined working hours mismatch across
European countries and its relationship with mental wellbeing, finding that macroeconomic conditions
moderated the effects of hours mismatch on wellbeing. This study highlights how national-level labour market
structures interact with individual-level work arrangements to shape mental health outcomes, providing
important context for sector-specific findings.
Physical Health and Body Image
Studies addressed physical health, body image, and physical activity among working women, reflecting growing
recognition that wellbeing is not reducible to psychological dimensions alone.
(Peng et al.,2024) investigated the interrelationships between physical activity, body anxiety, self-discipline, and
emotional eating among working women in China. The study found that physical activity was inversely
associated with emotional eating, partially mediated through reduced body anxiety and enhanced self-discipline.
Women in the workforce in China were found to face rising rates of anxiety and depression, often manifesting
in disordered eating patterns that detrimentally affected their health, work performance, and family interactions.
These findings suggest that physical activity interventions targeting body anxiety may have cascading benefits
for women's overall health behaviour.
(Lo,2025) investigated how urban green spaces support stress relief among women in contemporary urban
settings. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study examined the roles of landscape elements, perceived
sensory dimensions, landscape preference, and anxiety in mediating stress restoration. Natural features —
particularly plants, gardens, and water elements — were found to be the most effective landscape components
for promoting restoration and reducing anxiety. This study connects urban planning and environmental design
to women's occupational health, suggesting that access to green spaces may be a meaningful complement to
individual-level stress management strategies.
(Jeppu et al.,2019) assessed perceived stress levels and coping strategies among married women clerical
employees in a tertiary care teaching hospital, finding that work-related and family-related stressors were both
prevalent, and that avoidance-focused coping was common but maladaptive. The study recommended structured
stress management programmes and workplace counselling as practical interventions. (Robinson et al.,2015)
addressed the physical health dimension from a cancer survivorship perspective, finding that working women
with breast cancer faced unique challenges at the intersection of physical health management, occupational
demands, and workplace communication.
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(Biju and Pathak,2020) examined the role of emotional labour in the wellbeing of women intrapreneurial leaders
in the IT sector, finding that the suppression or modification of emotional expression required by intrapreneurial
roles imposed significant psychological and physical costs. These findings align with broader evidence on the
health costs of surface acting and emotional labour, and highlight a neglected dimension of occupational health
among women in leadership and innovation roles.
Relationships and Domestic Life
Six studies in this review addressed the intersection of working women's professional lives with their intimate
relationships, domestic experiences, and family dynamics.
(Okojide et al.,2023) examined psychological wellbeing as a predictor of marital stability among employed
women in Lagos State, Nigeria. Their findings demonstrated that higher PWB was a significant positive predictor
of marital stability, suggesting that workplace-derived stressors that erode women's psychological wellbeing
may have indirect consequences for family cohesion and relationship quality. The study situates individual
psychological health within the broader ecology of family wellbeing and societal stability.
(Yöyen et al.,2025) investigated predictors of psychological wellbeing among young adult women in romantic
relationships, identifying empathy, intimacy, passionate love, relationship stability, and sexual quality of life as
significant contributors. These findings underscore the bidirectional relationship between relational quality and
individual wellbeing, and suggest that working women's PWB is not solely a function of occupational factors
but is deeply embedded in the quality
(Yadav et al.,2022) traced the long-run wellbeing consequences of early marriage and early childbearing among
women in Bihar, India, finding that these gendered life-course events were significantly associated with adult
depression and poor mental health. This study bridges the themes of gender inequality and domestic life,
demonstrating that structural gender constraints expressed through marriage and reproductive norms leave
lasting imprints on women's wellbeing trajectories.
DISCUSSION
The findings of this systematic review reveal a consistent and sobering picture: working women across diverse
national, sectoral, and cultural contexts face compounding challenges to their psychological wellbeing. These
challenges arise from interconnected sources — including hostile or indifferent workplace cultures, structural
gender inequalities, inadequate organisational support for work-family management, and the additional burdens
imposed by domestic responsibilities and intimate relationships.
A prominent finding across themes is the centrality of organisational culture and leadership. Studies such as
(Yang,2025), (Xie and Zheng ,2022), and (Choeni et al.,2025) all demonstrate that the organisational
environment — whether characterised by inclusive leadership, masculinity contest culture, or voice climate —
fundamentally shapes women's wellbeing experiences. These findings point to organisational culture as a
primary lever for improving working women's wellbeing, and suggest that individual-level interventions are
unlikely to be sufficient without corresponding changes to the contexts in which women work.
The review also highlights the importance of structural factors that operate beyond the level of the individual
organisation. Studies by (De Moortel et al.,2017) and (Krueger,2017) situate working women's wellbeing within
macroeconomic conditions, while (Chen and Hu,2024) and (Yadav et al.,2022) demonstrate how deeply
embedded cultural norms around gender — expressed through agricultural traditions, educational expectations,
and marriage practices — shape the conditions of possibility for women's wellbeing. Addressing these structural
conditions requires policy interventions at national and international levels, including labour market reforms,
investment in childcare infrastructure, and legal protections against harassment and discrimination.
The evidence on interventions, while still relatively limited, is encouraging. Internet-based therapeutic
approaches such as iACT (Sasaki et al.,2023), mindfulness programmes (Rajeswari et al.,2025; Öcel,2017),
urban green space design (Lo,2025) show promise as accessible, scalable strategies for supporting working
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women's wellbeing. Family-responsive organisational policies, including flexible working arrangements
(Blazovich et al.,2018; Shepherd-Banigan et al.,2015), gender-sensitive HR practices (Verma et al.,2018), and
supportive supervision (Yang, 2025), are consistently associated with better wellbeing outcomes.
The geographic and sectoral diversity of this review's evidence base is notable. Studies were drawn from India,
China, Bangladesh, Nigeria, South Africa, Germany, Europe, Colombia, New Zealand, South Korea, Pakistan,
the United States, and Russia, among others. Sector coverage spanned IT, garment manufacturing, construction,
banking, tourism, healthcare, education, and the corporate sector. This diversity strengthens the generalisability
of core findings while also highlighting the importance of contextual sensitivity in designing wellbeing
interventions.
CONCLUSION
This systematic review has synthesised evidence from 48 peer-reviewed studies to map the landscape of research
on working women's wellbeing across seven key thematic domains. The review demonstrates that working
women globally face significant and interconnected threats to their psychological and physical wellbeing, arising
from workplace harassment and bullying, work-life imbalance, gender inequality, sector-specific occupational
stressors, and the demands of domestic and relational life. At the same time, the evidence base identifies a range
of individual, organisational, and structural interventions with demonstrated potential to improve wellbeing
outcomes.
Future research should prioritise longitudinal designs capable of establishing causal directions, particularly for
the pathways linking gender inequality, organisational culture, and wellbeing outcomes. Greater attention to
intersectionality — including race, class, disability status, and sexual orientation — is needed to capture the
diversity of working women's experiences. Methodological advances in wearable technology and federated
machine learning, as demonstrated by (Devi et al.,2024), offer promising directions for personalised, privacy-
preserving wellbeing monitoring and intervention. Ultimately, improving working women's wellbeing requires
a multi-level commitment from researchers, organisations, policymakers, and communities to address both the
proximal and structural determinants of women's occupational health.
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