It’s been proven that stress can cause health problems such as headaches, stomach problems as well as anxiety and many other symptoms that effect the body and mood (source: Mayo Clinic). We wanted to know how stressed women felt and what the major causes of their stress were.

Only 1% of women felt that they were not stressed at all with only 3% feeling that they were extremely stressed. This leaves most women falling somewhere in the middle, or ‘somewhat stressed’ (31%) and 19% falling into the ‘not so stressed’ category. We also learned that 50% of women felt reducing their stress needed the most improvement in their lives, more so than finances, career and love life, making this an important factor in their lives.

69% of women felt that they are more stressed than they should be. In grading how they manage their stress, 44% graded themselves fair to poor with 46% of mothers feeling the same. Only 19% gave themselves an excellent or good grade in dealing with stress. The ways that they are currently dealing with their stress are exercise (52%) or overeating (31%)

So we know women are stressed, but what stresses them out so much? School came in at 65%, with 31% saying their job, with job stress growing to 40% for women aged 25-29. 29% felt the stress of their finances, which grew to 42% of women 35-40. Only 9% of moms with children indicated that their kids stressed them out, their number one stress cause was finances.

Women need a break and marketers can help them out by offering them some relief from their stressful lives. We have seen this with different CPG clients like Kit-Kat with their ‘Kit-Kat’ break campaign. But, marketers can take this a bit further than a tagline, by offering stress relief tips, quick exercise breaks, a fun but quick game/app to take their mind off whatever it is that is stressing them out. The main point is, make it quick and effective to fit into their busy lives.