Science and Health

Women in emerging markets feeling more stressed

By Wang Chenyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-07-01 08:03

BEIJING - Women in emerging economies are feeling more stressed, according to a new report released by Nielsen, a leading global information and measurement company.

The report, titled "Women of Tomorrow", focused on women in 21 countries and showed that while female respondents say they are pressured for time, feel stressed and are overworked, women in emerging economies feel the strain even more than women in developed economies.

Though all women feel the stress of multiple roles, the study shows that tension is highest in emerging economies, where women have less income available at their discretion.

Women in India (87 percent), Mexico (74 percent) and Russia (69 percent) reported the most stress among developing economies. In developed economies, women in Spain (66 percent), France (65 percent) and Italy (64 percent) reported the highest levels of stress.

Indeed, women are rising in economic power. Better access to education, improved career opportunities and higher pay in both developed and emerging economies are fueling women's confidence on their future.

In Nielsen's research, nearly 80 percent of women surveyed in developed economies believe the role of women is changing, and of those, 90 percent believe it is changing for the better.

In emerging economies, the future is even brighter. Mothers in China, India and other emerging markets are more likely to believe their daughters will have better opportunities than they did.

Eighty-one percent of the women surveyed from emerging countries believe their daughters would have greater financial stability; 83 percent believe their daughters would have a better education, and 84 percent believe their daughters would have better access to technology.

In developed countries, only 40 percent felt that their daughters will enjoy better financial stability while 54 percent foresee better education opportunities for their daughters.

And while women are gaining more influence over key household decisions, education outranks other priorities when the participants of the investigation were asked to allocate any additional money. Forty-eight percent of Chinese women see education as their top priority, ranking sixth in the survey.

Nielsen conducted the survey between February and April. Nearly 6,500 women throughout the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Africa and North America were polled by an online methodology or a door-to-door approach.

The results of the study are more interesting and thought-provoking for businesses since it also indicated women prefer to choose TV for new information and that stress-reducing products will become more popular among women.