Key findings:
- Nearly half of women workers (45%) feel burned out from work
- One in six (17%) women workers cite worsening work-life balance, with flexibility arising as a key factor
- Work-life balance is also a leading cause of churn for women workers
- Diversity and inclusion initiatives remain an important role for women in the workplace
- Despite optimism for AI, workers express concerns over lack of training, job losses, and increased workloads surrounding AI
- Women are more likely to feel guilty for using AI, while men have stronger feelings of feeling left behind
Nearly half of women workers (45%) feel burned out from work
Women who experience work burnout are significantly more likely than women who rarely or never experience mental exhaustion due to their job to:
- Feel less satisfied with their current job (80% vs.96%), or the amount of career growth available at their current job (68% vs. 89%)
- Work more hours per week compared to a year ago (32% vs. 23%)
- Work longer hours (25 vs. 7%), delay taking PTO (21% vs. 5%), and delay asking for a raise (17% vs. 5%) due to fear of losing their job
- Experience a setback in their career over the past 12 months (21% vs. 8%)
- Express concern about taking flexible work arrangements preventing future career goals (46% vs. 20%)
- Cite worsening work-life balance compared to the previous year (31% vs. 5%)
- Cite feeling overwhelmed at work (37% vs. 8%), be worried about losing their job (16% vs. 8%), or being stuck at their job (17% vs. 4%) as their biggest source of stress at work
- Consider quitting their job (38% vs. 7%)
One in six (17%) women workers cite worsening work-life balance, with flexibility arising as a key factor
Among women workers who have experienced year-over-year declines in work-life balance, increased workload is the leading reason (50%), while 26% also cite having taken on a more demanding role within their company. Work-life balance, however, is not just about how much work, or the type of work women are facing:
- 33% cite a less flexible work schedule as a main driver of declining work-life balance
- 27% cite increased personal and family commitments
- 15% cite fewer remote work opportunities
- 29% of women workers with children under 18 cite increased challenges in accessing childcare.
Among women workers who cite improved work-life balance over the previous year, flexibility is the leading factor (57%), far ahead of decreasing workloads (19%) or having a less demanding role (21%).
- 19% also cite increased remote work opportunities
- 14% cite having fewer personal or family commitments
- 14% cite fewer work travel or professional commitments after working hours
Work-life balance is also a leading cause of churn for women workers
One in four (27%) women workers have considered quitting their current job (21%), or have quit their job (6%) within the past 12 months.
- Work-life balance arises as a leading cause of attrition:
- 42% of women who considered quitting did so to seek out a job with better work-life balance.
- 38% of women who did quit cited the same reason.
- Seeking out greater flexibility (hybrid/remote, schedule) is also a significant factor:
- A quarter of women (25%) who considered quitting cited flexibility as a main reason.
- 27% of women who quit also cite flexibility.
One in three women workers (36%) cite work-life balance as the main reason for staying in their current job, while a similar percentage also cite having a flexible work arrangement (hybrid/remote, work hours).
Diversity and inclusion initiatives remain an important role for women in the workplace
Nearly one in four (22%) of women workers feel like it is more difficult to be themselves at work compared to one year ago. Although only 14% say their organization is less diverse, and 14% say there are fewer opportunities at work targeted to women compared to three years ago, such initiatives have a substantial impact on women’s experience in the workplace. Compared to those who saw an increase in women-specific initiatives, those who cite a decline are:
- Five times more likely to say that their organization feels less diverse now compared to 3 years ago (50% vs. 10%)
- More than three times to say that it feels harder to be themselves in the workplace (51% vs. 14%)
Younger women workers are more likely to cite a positive impact of diversity initiatives on their career:
30% of Gen Z workers say such initiatives have helped their career, compared to 23% of Millennials, 14% of Gen Xers, and 10% of Boomers.
General purpose AI chatbots such as Gemini or ChatGPT are the leading AI tools for workers, as one in four (27%) American workers are using the technology on a weekly or daily basis
- Four in ten workers (40%) have used AI at work this year:
- 17% use AI at least daily (12% multiple times a day, and 5% about once a day)
- 10% use AI a few times a week
- 7% use AI a few times a month
- 6% have used AI only a few times a year
- 60% say they never use AI
Among those who use AI, more than half (55%) are using general purpose AI chatbots, such as Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. One in four (27%) are using AI integrated with existing tools and software. Only 12% are using proprietary, internal, or custom AI tools.
Despite optimism for AI, workers express concerns over lack of training, job losses, and increased workloads surrounding AI
Workers who use AI overwhelmingly believe that AI is a valuable assistant and collaborator, and near four in ten (37%) believe it almost feels like cheating at their job. Despite the support for AI, concerns also rise:
- 69% believe that AI is going to cause job losses
- 53% feel like they will fall behind at work if they don’t embrace AI
- 30% believe that AI creates more work for them.
- 67% feel like they need more training on how to use AI at work.
| How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about using AI at work? (among workers who use AI) | ||
| Strongly/ somewhat agree | Strongly/somewhat disagree | |
| AI is a valuable assistant and collaborator | 85% | 15% |
| AI is going to cause job losses | 69% | 31% |
| I need more training on how to use AI at work | 67% | 33% |
| Using AI at work feels like cheating | 37% | 63% |
| I feel like I will fall behind at work if I don’t embrace AI | 53% | 47% |
| AI creates more work for me | 30% | 70% |
Women are more likely to feel guilty for using AI, while men have stronger feelings of feeling left behind
Among users of AI (use it Multiple times a day, About once a day, A few times a week, A few times a month, A few times a year):
- Women who use AI are less frequent users of AI (25% of women use it multiple times a day, compared to 32% of men who use AI)
- Women and men are equally likely to
- View AI as a valuable collaborator and assistant (84% vs 87% strongly/somewhat agree, respectively)
- Say that AI creates more work for them (30% vs. 29%)
- Feel like AI is going to cause job losses (69% vs 70%)
- Women are more likely than men to:
- Feel like using AI at work is cheating (41% vs. 34%)
- Women are less likely than men to:
Methodology: This SurveyMonkey study was conducted February 10-16, 2026 among a national sample of 6,330 adults, including 3,048 women. Respondents for this survey were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 1.5 percentage point. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.
