Final answer:
Women historically have experienced heightened stress from work-family conflict, with societal expectations imposing a 'motherhood penalty' on their employment opportunities. During wartime and economic downturns, women's roles evolved, presenting both challenges and opportunities. Stress response is influenced by gender, societal expectations, and economic conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Stress Response and Primary Caregivers:
It is well-documented that women often shoulder a greater burden of family demands, such as childcare, homemaking, and caring for elderly relatives. Despite men in the United States taking on more domestic responsibilities, women continue to report higher levels of stress from work-family conflict. This is supported by a historical pattern where society has held women to expectations of being 'good mothers' and domestic caretakers, creating a notable tension when they also pursue employment.
During the wartime periods, women were required to take on additional roles due to the absence of men, which led to both stresses and opportunities. Post-war, despite societal pressures to return to domestic roles, many women continued to seek employment and faced challenges such as discrimination, lack of promotion opportunities, and the 'motherhood penalty'—the notion that they cannot simultaneously be good mothers and workers. Throughout history, the concept of maternal feminism emerged as women sought to extend their nurturing and cultural roles beyond the home and into the workforce and society at large.
The economic downturn during 2008-2009 saw an increase in stress levels particularly amongst employed men with college degrees, highlighting that stress responses are not solely a gender-based issue, but also relate to societal and economic changes. Women, especially those with lower incomes, face a 'tax' of sorts when they work additional hours because they must then also pay for childcare, proving to be a substantial stressor relative to their budget constraints.