One in three British women feel sad: Overworked, underappreciated and patronised, is it really any wonder?

We’re told we can have it all, but what they mean is we can do it all. Women in the UK are growing more sad by the day and, quite frankly, I’m not surprised.

In the 2023 Hologic Global Women’s Health Index, the UK ranked 22nd out of 31 European countries for emotional health. According to the health league table, one in three British women feel sad, with worse emotional health than those in Kosovo and Saudi Arabia.

The research revealed sadness, stress and anger were all on the rise among women in the UK but is it any wonder? We live in a time where we are expected to do more, look great while doing it and, most importantly, be super grateful we now have permission to take on these gargantuan workloads.

In days gone by we were expected to keep a house and raise the kids but ‘equality’ now means we get to do all that and hold down a full time job too. Lucky us!

Recent research by Starling Bank revealed the division of different chores still follows entrenched gender stereotypes. The traditional ‘home making’ task of cleaning, for example, is five times more likely to fall on women’s shoulders than men’s (52% vs 10%). Women take on even more of the load when they start a family, the research suggests.

The current economic situation makes responsibilities such as meal planning, shopping and cooking, along with other budgeting tasks such as renewing home insurance, even more stressful. With the household income becoming increasingly stretched, balancing the books while ensuring the family eats nutritious meals and are all covered for fire, theft and accidental damage, can feel like a fulltime job in itself.

Just this week, research from Maternity Action revealed most new mothers suffer financial stress during pregnancy and maternity leave, forcing them back to work earlier than they would like after the birth. In fact, around three out of five returned to work early or were planning to do so - proving when they told us we could have it all, they were definitely lying.

Like everyone at the moment, getting a GP appointment is near impossible, but for women the situation is made worse by not being listened to and having symptoms dismissed when we do eventually get to speak to a medical professional. I have had personal experience of this when my health concerns were ignored, ultimately leading to completely avoidable emergency surgery and sepsis - I can confirm it also resulted in increased feelings of sadness, stress and anger.

Expectations for us to be driven career women, wholesome mums, perfect partners, all while being overworked, patronised and ignored - it can get a girl down. UK women are sad? Tell us something we don’t know.