Technology pushes women to the edge

Email and mobiles add to stress levels

By Lucy Sherriff • Get more from this author

Posted in Small Biz, 10th August 2004 12:25 GMT

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Women in the UK report that technology adds to the pressure they face in balancing work and home lives.

According to research conducted for Good Housekeeping magazine, women in the UK feel under increasing pressure to be contactable at all times. The survey revealed that mobile phones and email are just one more thing busy working mothers have to juggle, and make life more hectic, not less so.

The survey found that 30 per cent of women in the UK, and 47 per cent of women in London, have, at some point, been "driven to exhaustion" by home and work commitments.

Mobile technology made it easier for work to impinge on family life, the survey found. Ten per cent of women said their employer regularly called them outside of working hours, and a similar number said that their bosses were more demanding when requests were made by email than if they asked in person.

However, 29 per cent of women (and 56 per cent of women aged between 16 and 24) said that despite this, they could not live with out their mobile phone for more than a day.

The report quotes June Walton, Good Housekeeping's deputy editor, as saying that it is time to take stock, and "reclaim our lives". ®