Commuting is more stressful for women

The daily struggle of commuting to and from work has a negative effect on the mental health of women, according to reports

A study into the effects of commuting on psychological health suggests the added responsibilities of childcare and household chores on women increase the burden of getting to work.

Researchers believe these added pressures on women make the impact of commuting four times greater than it is for men, who seem generally unaffected despite commuting taking up more of their time.

‘We know that women, especially those with children, are more likely to add daily errands to their commute, such as food shopping and dropping off and picking up children from childcare,’ says Co-author and economist Prof Jennifer Roberts, from the University of Sheffield.

‘These time constraints and the reduced flexibility that comes with them make commuting stressful in a way that it wouldn’t be otherwise.’

The research into gender differences in the effects of commuting, published in the Journal of Health Economics, found that women with pre-school age children were affected the most.

But Paul Dolan, of theLondon School of Economics says: ‘Men also experience competing demands on their time, so it may simply be they are less affected by the psychological costs of commuting.’

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