For Women, it’s Lonelier at the Top

While all leaders might experience occasional loneliness, 53 percent of women report feeling lonely at work, researchers found, with higher rates at higher levels of seniority. Loneliness can increase health risks and lead to disengagement and other behaviors that can impact performance. While women often face discrimination and microaggressions at work, the odds of them doing so increase when they are the only woman, a 2019 McKinsey Quarterly study found.

Because of systemic gender biases, female leaders have to parse whether people are reacting to their behaviors or their identities, psychologist Mira Brancu writes in Psychology Today. “Therefore, in addition to navigating the usual challenges of leadership, there's an additional level of cognitive and emotional overload occurring internally for people with marginalized identities in leadership roles,”  Brancu writes.

Photo by R.M. Lynn & Bro., c. 1865.

Loneliness results not from a lack of interaction with others but from a lack of meaningful interaction, Constance Dierickx writes in Forbes. Among the damaging effects of loneliness at work, Dierickx lists a reduction in feeling and expressing enthusiasm, as well as “Loss of empathy and limited tolerance for one’s own and other’s imperfections that makes people irritable, judgmental, and hard to be around.”

The solution? Hire and promote more women, obviously. In architecture, just 23 percent of firm partners and principals identify as female while 36 percent of licensed architects do, according to the AIA’s 2022 Firm Survey Report. This likely contributes to why women, especially women of color, are far less satisfied with current architectural careers than white men are, as a 2021 AIA/The Center for WorkLife Law investigation into bias in the architecture profession found.

Female leaders who don’t leave their firm or the profession in search of more equitable opportunities can take small steps to reduce their loneliness. Dierickx suggests building connections by consciously engaging others and expressing curiosity. Such meaningful interactions can have long-term benefits for a team as well as decreasing feelings of loneliness for the leader.

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