Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Men are no longer the breadwinners but still do less housework, the Women's Tennis Association is going back to China, and more than half of women in corporate America are lonely at work. Happy Friday!
- Pressure at the top. It's lonely at the top—and new research confirms it. Fifty-three percent of women in corporate America say they experience loneliness in the workplace.
Fortune Well reporter L'Oreal Thompson Payton dives into the data in a new story. The survey was conducted by TheLi.st, Berlin Cameron, and Benenson Strategy Group, and found that 30% of senior women said they don't have anyone to talk to about work.
This data may not be very surprising. Senior executives of all genders experience loneliness in the workplace, as the number of people they can have "no-agenda conversations" with dwindles with each jump up the corporate ladder.
With so few women across the top ranks of corporate America—just 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, for example—it makes sense that the problem would be worse for female leaders. (In January, I wrote about the friendship of former Match Group CEOs Mandy Ginsberg and Shar Dubey because their bond is so rare.) Women lack not just a workplace confidante, but a peer who understands the unique pressures of being one of a few. Caregiving responsibilities at home and burnout amplify women's loneliness.
TheLi.st founder Ann Shoket hopes the new data will lead to action. “We did this research not to point out how lonely it is, but to point out the impact of that loneliness on [women's] lives and their careers," she told Fortune. "It’s not that so many women are feeling lonely at their job, but they feel lonely because of their job.”
Read the full story here.
We'd love to hear from you, Broadsheet readers, about your experiences with loneliness in the workplace. Has it gotten worse as you've advanced in your careers? How and why? Send a note to my email below—your message may be featured in a future Broadsheet.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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