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27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
 Women With Mental Illness 
Stigma and Career 
Bianca Spode Beltrame¹, Marcos Vinicius Dalagostini Bidarte², Maria Beatriz Rodrigues³ 
1Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil; bianca.beltrame@progesp.ufrgs.br 
2Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil; bidarte.vinicius@gmail.com 
³Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil; beatriz.rodrigues@ufrgs.br 
Abstract 
Estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that depression and anxiety have a global 
economic impact of one billion dollars a year and that around 450 million people worldwide meet the 
criteria for the diagnosis of some type of mental disorder, of which 80% live in low and middle-income 
countries. This study aims to investigate how the stigma of mental illness impacts the insertion in the 
labor market and the development of women's careers. For this, the Sustainable Development Goals 
(SDGs) was taken into consideration, especially SDGs 5.1 and 5.5 (by 2030, achieve gender equality 
and empower all women and girls); 8.5 (achieve full and productive employment and decent work for 
all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work 
of equal value); and 10.2 (empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, 
irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or another status), when 
seeking to contribute with accelerating progress towards the SDGs in times of crisis. The context of the 
Covid-19 pandemic and its social isolation measures are considered, as this directly affects the health 
and well-being of the people involved, their families, and society in general. A systematic review of the 
recent literature was carried out, analyzing the articles indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science 
databases, following the recommendations of the Prisma method. The results revealed low academic 
production on the theme, with the discussion being circumscribed in the Health field and the countries 
and institutions of the Global North. Results from the corpus of the analysis indicate that the 
consequences for women who suffer from stigma related to mental illness are serious and their 
discrimination causes innumerable damages, such as low self-esteem, low self-confidence, and low 
quality of life. We know how impactful these damages are, as they usually end up reflecting on an entire 
family, often headed by this woman. It is thus needed that society changes its outlook and practice, 
aiming at the acceptance of diversity and social inclusion through work. Based on the identified gaps, 
a research agenda on the topic in the field of Administration is proposed, especially focused on the area 
of Human Resources Management and Labor Relations. 
Keywords: Mental Illness, Stigma, Career, SGDs, Women 
 
mailto:bidarte.vinicius@gmail.com
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
1. Introduction 
Estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2017) show that depression and anxiety have a 
global economic impact of one billion dollars a year, and that around 450 million people worldwide 
meet the criteria for the diagnosis of some type of mental disorder, of which 80% live in low and middle-
income countries (Giraldi, 2021). It is indisputable that mental health is an inseparable part of health as 
a whole and that themes related to mental health have been attracting the attention of the population 
and institutions, whether public or private, especially at this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. In an 
official statement on May 14, 2021, Devora Kestel, director of the mental health department of the 
World Health Organization (WHO) stated that “isolation, fear, uncertainty, economic chaos - they all 
cause or can cause psychological distress” and that “the mental health and well-being of entire societies 
have been seriously impacted by this crisis and are a priority to be urgently addressed” (UN, 2021c). 
The global guidelines have become daily in the pandemic and, through them, people have managed to 
act more cautiously and safely. Similarly, in a global pact to tackle poverty, fight inequality and 
injustice, there is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as Global Goals, which 
address 17 interconnected goals, which address the main challenges of development faced by people 
around the world (UN, 2021a). With the Covid-19 pandemic, these inequalities are also becoming even 
more pronounced, especially in developing countries, which points to an urgent review of this global 
agenda, of the SDGs and its 169 goals so that sustainable balance is achieved in all areas. 
This study covers the ODS 5.1 e 5.5 (by 2030, achieve gender equality and empower all women and 
girls), 8.5 (achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including 
for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value), e 10.2 (empower 
and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, 
ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status), by aiming to contribute to accelerating progress 
towards the SDGs in times of crisis (UN, 2021a). 
Considering the exposed scenario, this study aims to investigate how the stigma of mental illnesses 
impacts the insertion in the job market and the development of women's careers. In particular, the 
Covid-19 pandemic context and its social isolation measures are considered, as this directly affects the 
health and well-being of the people involved, their families, and society in general. To this end, a 
systematic review of the recent literature was carried out, analyzing the articles indexed in the Scopus 
and Web of Science (WoS) databases. 
This study is structured in four sections, in addition to this introduction. The theoretical section 
discusses women's mental health and professional careers and stigma. The third section presents the 
methodology, detailing the procedures used for the collection and analysis of the research corpus. The 
fourth section presents the qualitative and quantitative analyzes of the data collected and their 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
discussions. In the end, in the fifth section, discussions are exposed and suggestions for future research 
in the field are pointed out. 
2. Theoretical Framework 
For the World Health Organization (WHO, 2004), mental health refers to well-being in which the 
individual develops his personal skills, manages to deal with the stresses of life, works productively, 
and is able to give his contribution to his/her community. In this sense, Almeida-Filho, Coelho, and 
Peres (1999) explain that mental health means a healthy socius, implying in employment, job 
satisfaction, significant daily life, social participation, leisure, quality of social networks, equity, and, 
consequently, quality of life. For the authors, mental health is also linked to an emancipatory agenda of 
the subject, which is unavoidably political in nature. 
In turn, Safra (2004) discuss that the phenomenon of globalization and the consequent changes in social 
relations has resulted in new forms of psychological suffering that are not restricted to only a 
restlessness, but points to processes of fragmentation of the being and the fragility of one's own psychic 
constitution. For the author, the current world presents situations that lead the human being to become 
ill in his/her possibility of being: he/she lives today fragmented, decentralized from himself/herself, 
unable to find, in culture, the elements andthe necessary support to achieve the overcoming of their 
psychic difficulties (Safra, 2005). 
Debord (1997) explains that we live in a society of the spectacle, which understands suffering as a 
synonym for shame or as something that needs to be medicated and covered up immediately. There is 
a demand for happiness that is part of the goals of the consumer society (Bauman, 2008), which 
culminates in the spread of antidepressants and anxiolytics, resulting in the hyper-medicalization of 
malaise (Coutinho, O'dwyer, and Frossard, 2018). Thus, those who suffer from some psychic “malaise” 
tend to be held responsible and stigmatized for their failures (Tavares, 2010). In a culture that does not 
respect mental illness, comparing it to human failure, it is common for these people to suffer 
discrimination, whether from employers, coworkers, friends, and/or family members (Zanonato, Costa 
and Aosani, 2021). Furthermore, there is the information from the WHO (2017) that the lack of support 
for people with mental disorders and the fear of stigma makes it difficult for these individuals to access 
the necessary treatment to have healthy and productive lives. 
Psychiatric epidemiological data show that, in general, women are the majority in mental health service 
statistics (Busfield, 1996). The diagnoses also list which symptoms and disorders are more common for 
women, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders (Zanello, 2014). The formulation and 
execution of public mental health policies also focus on women (Maluf, 2010), as well as the actions of 
the pharmaceutical industries (Zanello 2014). The career woman, in addition to the already known wage 
inequality concerning men and their precarious, informal, and unstable jobs is also burdened with 
several overlapping roles, which involve unpaid and socially unrecognized activities, such as caring for 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
family members, and household chores (ECLAC, 2009). The overload can favor or aggravate 
dissatisfaction and psychological suffering, opening spaces for the emergence of mental illnesses. The 
consequent impossibility of continuing to exercise their professional and family activities due to illness, 
leads to discrimination at work and in social life, stigmatizing women. 
From Greek, the word “stigma” means sting, made with a red-hot iron on the arm of slaves, marginal, 
and criminals, representing social disgrace. It was not related to mental disorders, but associated with 
shame, humiliation, and devaluation, at which point stereotypes emerged, patterns established by 
common sense, based on the lack of knowledge on the subject (Rocha, Hara and Paprocki, 2015). 
For Goffman (1980), the acquired stigma refers to a physical, psychic, or character attribute, which 
makes the subjects different or even inferior to the eyes of others considered “normal”. After analyzing 
how victims of stigmatization feel about themselves, the author states that this attribute, considered 
“abnormal” by the defined “normal” society, is reproduced by an oppressive capitalist system that, 
indirectly, imposes the rules and conduct that individuals must follow. Upon defining stigma not only 
as a personal attribute, but also as a form of social designation, Goffman clarifies that its manifestation 
is extremely harmful to people with mental disorders, since people without mental disorders usually 
use specific terms of stigma in the speech daily (as, for example, retarded, crazy) as a source of 
exclusion, without thinking about its original meaning (Goffman, 1980). 
In the same way, Fernandes (2006) argues that stigma is related to insufficient or inadequate knowledge, 
which leads to prejudice, discrimination, and social distance from the stigmatized person. For the 
author, stigma represents an obstacle both to social inclusion and to the strengthening and construction 
of identity, because, in addition to the prejudice inculcated in society, there is the prejudice of the person 
with a mental disorder to himself. Recalling that work, a place where the stigmatized subject is also 
seen as undesirable, is equally seen as an edifier of the individual identities (Molinier, 2004; Dejours, 
2008, 2012). 
This view has complex historical and cultural roots, which greatly hamper the efforts of governments 
and civil society in the process of social inclusion and identity re-signification of people with mental 
disorders (Volz et al., 2015). Thus, women who suffer from mental disorders end up being triple 
neglected in the labor market: firstly, due to the stigma of the disease (Goffman, 1980) and, secondly, 
due to the lack of training (Martins, 2009) and, third, simply for being a woman (Fraga and Rocha-de-
Oliveira, 2020). 
In this process of exclusion and stigmatization of women with mental disorders, the stigmatized persons 
tend to show that they apply on themselves the same beliefs supplied by the self-appointed “normal” 
society; that is, as they are labelled and discriminated, they feel the inner marks and shame of these 
stereotypes (Goffman, 1980). Fear, shame and the feeling of devaluation make the carriers of mental 
disorders feel incapable of being productive, both in the cultural and the economic points of view. 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
Martins (2009) points out that, if before the relevance of work in the scope of mental health denoted a 
moral norm, entertainment, or therapeutic component, nowadays it has acquired a new meaning: those 
who were previously seen simply as patients in treatment, begin to be seen as workers (Martins, 2009). 
Often, the fear of being rejected and discriminated against causes a woman who has or has had a mental 
illness to hide behind a cover. This is because, when assuming her moral career as a person with a 
mental disorder, she ceases to be “normal” and becomes a “diminished” one, devalued, and identified 
by stigma (Volz et al., 2015). 
It is worth mentioning the still little explored concept of ableism. These social standards that define 
who will be stigmatized or who will be part of normality, with people with disabilities being part of the 
group of stigmatized people, characterize the so-called ableist vision, which designates them as not 
capable of effectively participating in society (Mik-Meyer, 2016; Brown and Leigh, 2018; Giese and 
Ruin, 2018). Thus, ableism is always associated with stigma, prejudice concerning the abilities of 
people with disabilities. 
About ableism, Campbell (2001, p. 44) conceptualizes the term as “a network of beliefs, processes, and 
practices that produce a certain type of self and body (the body pattern) that is designed as the perfect 
(...)”. According to the author, from a ableist perspective, disability is understood as a diminished state 
of human beings. Shortly, one can define ableism as a discriminatory attitude that sees people with 
disabilities unfit for work and unable to take care of their own lives. It alludes to a prejudiced posture 
that hierarchizes people according to the adequacy of their bodies. Due to the phenomenon of ableism, 
people with disabilities are generally treated as incapable - to produce, to work, to learn, to love, to care, 
to feel desire, to have sex - bringing the demands of the movements of people with disabilities closer to 
other social discrimination such as sexism, racism, and homophobia (Campbell, 2019). 
The mental illness is debilitating, temporarily or permanently, for work, relationships, and social life in 
general. Thus, the concept of ableism becomes relevant for the discussion, since the stigmatization of 
the mentally ill makes him seen as incapable of carrying out daily and productive activities. Since 
ableism is an a priori judgment of asubject's abilities or disabilities, there is no room for him/her to 
prove the opposite (Campbell, 2019). The stigma is constructed and reproduced socially and serves as 
a cage for the protection of beliefs, or as a deposit of characteristics and ways of being that we do not 
understand and prefer to keep away from our existence. Stigma and ableism are surely driven by many 
different reasons, but the mechanism always seems to be the same: the exclusion. 
The discussion on the insertion of women with mental suffering in the labor market needs to be carried 
out through broad and interconnected concepts, such as diversity, inclusion, capacities/ableism, stigma, 
and respect, which refer to the readiness of societies to welcome. The labor market and the organizations 
are an active part of society's discussions and demands. In the last decades, movements for the identity 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
struggle have potentiated debates and actions aimed at the inclusion of diversities. The plural is 
important given another basic concept: that of intersectionality. 
Created by Crenshaw (1989), the term intersectionality came up to designate the interdependence of 
power relations of race, sex, and class, referring to the movement of the late 1970s known as Black 
Feminism, whose collective criticism turned from radical way against white, middle-class, 
heteronormative feminism. Bilge (2009), defines intersectionality as a transdisciplinary theory that aims 
to apprehend the complexity of identities and social inequalities through an integrated approach. It 
refutes the confinement and hierarchy of the main axes of social differentiation, which are the categories 
of sex/gender, class, race, ethnicity, age, disability, and sexual orientation. For the author, the 
intersectional approach goes beyond simply recognizing the multiplicity of systems of oppression that 
operate from these categories and postulates their interaction in the production and reproduction of 
social inequalities (Bilge, 2009). 
3. Methods 
The systematic literature review is employed in several areas of knowledge as a scientific method to 
bring general information on a given theme (Moher et al., 2009). It aims to identify, select, and critically 
evaluate relevant research that helps to understand how the stigma of mental illness impacts the 
insertion in the labor market and the development of the career of women. 
The corpus of this study consists of articles indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), both the 
largest international bibliographic databases with peer review and with strict indexing criteria. The data 
collection on these databases was carried out in May 2021. 
As a search strategy, a combination of terms was used based on the following keywords: “Career”, 
“Mental Illness”, and “Woman/Women”. For the crossing of keywords, we used the search by topic 
terms (TS: title, summary, keywords) with the support of the Boolean operator AND, who located the 
articles that specifically mention the terms searched, restricting, from this way, the amplitude of the 
search. 
The following research refinements were made, seeking to increase the reliability of the collected data: 
only records identified as articles and published in the last ten years were considered (time frame: 2011-
2020). In this collection stage, 32 articles were found, being: 18 articles in Scopus; and 14 articles on 
WoS. Regarding the results, it is noticed that the Scopus database showed greater participation with 
articles aligned with the themes of interest in the present study. It is mentioned that indexing documents 
in databases usually takes some time. As a result of this process, articles may have been indexed in the 
searched databases after the date of collection, especially articles approved in the year 2020. 
In order to present the systematic review and meta-analysis, the Prisma (Moher et al., 2009) 
recommendation was followed, which consists of a checklist with 27 items and a four-step flowchart. 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
Through the flowchart (Figure 1), the numbers of articles screened, evaluated for eligibility, and 
included in the qualitative and quantitative syntheses are presented. The main reasons for the exclusion 
of articles in the review stages were non-adherence to the theme and the research corpus. 
 
Figure 1. Flowchart with the steps of the systematic literature review 
Source: Prepared by the authors according to the model provided by Moher et al. (2009). 
The analyzes of the articles were performed with the aid of the Mendeley software (data grouping, 
checking of duplicate documents), Microsoft Excel (graphs, tables, statistics), and NVivo (word 
frequency query). The articles selected for eligibility were cataloged on a spreadsheet in the Excel 
software according to the following variables of interest: temporal distribution; keywords; the number 
of authorships; distribution of articles by country and related institutions; distribution of articles by 
journals and scopes/study area. The following section presents the analyzes and discussions of the 
collected data. 
4. Results and Discussion 
Following the recommendation by Prisma (Moher et al., 2009), this section presents the qualitative and 
quantitative synthesis of the research corpus, discussing the contributions of articles on the themes and 
describing their bibliometric characteristics, according to variables of interest. 
Figure 2 shows an oscillating behavior in the number of published articles that address the themes of 
the present study, with an average of almost 2 articles per year. The peak of publications is in the years 
2012 and 2018, with 3 articles each, which indicates the lack of research in the area. 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
 
Figure 2. Temporal distribution of articles 
Source: Prepared by the authors according to research data. 
We found out that most of the papers were written in co-authorship, by two (27,3%) or more authors 
(45,5%). It was noted that the authorships did not repeat themselves, this may prove that those studies 
stemmed from a punctual and specific interest that did not have a follow-up. Taking into consideration 
a ten-year-time period, the studies can be characterized as punctual and restricted to specific realities, 
we can extrapolate that they were conducted in known environments with facilitated access to data. 
These characteristics do not necessarily mean that there were limitations, they can be useful to explore 
different situations and contexts where mental health is relevant to investigate the labour conditions. 
They can also provide models for similar studies in the future, once the problems of mental health will 
be well diversified and inspiring. However, we can affirm, after analyzing the papers, that the studies 
are in scattered order and restricted to specific realities. Nevertheless, the present study may hold an 
ample vision regarding what has been researched on the theme and what should complement it. 
Seeking to know where the articles were produced, the distribution of publications by country and 
linked institutions was verified. This information was extracted from the articles based on the mini 
curricula informed by the authors. The countries highlighted by the number of mentions are: United 
States (37.5%), Spain (11.3%), South Korea (7.5%), Australia, Netherlands, and New Zealand (5% 
each). In turn, the featured institutions are: “Harvard Medical School” (7.5%), “University of Alabama 
at Birmingham” (6.3%) and “University of Washington” (6.3%), located in United States, and also 
“Konkuk University” (6.3%), located in SouthKorea. It was also observed that there are authors who 
have links with more than one university (2.9%), and others who have ties to private companies and/or 
hospitals (18.6%). In particular, what explains a large number of countries and institutions is the article 
by Auerbach et al. (2016), which has thirty-six authorships. 
Table 1 shows the ranking of journals and their scopes where the articles were published. Note the 
presence of journals from the United States (36.4%) and England (27.3%), which comprise more than 
half of the published articles. In a certain way, this result indicates a relationship between the authors' 
country of origin and the journals. It is observed that the articles, for the most part, were published in 
journals in the areas of Medicine and Psychology, but some of them in the area of Social Sciences. This 
concentration in the areas can be explained by the predominance of empirical articles carried out with 
people as subjects of research. 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
Table 1. Distribution of articles by journals and scopes/study area 
Source: Prepared by the authors according to research data. 
Journal Country Scope/Study area 
British Journal of Guidance 
& Counselling England Psychology: Applied Psychology 
Canadian Bulletin of 
Medical History Canada Medicine: General Medicine 
Criminal Justice and 
Behavior United States 
Social Sciences: Law; Psychology: General 
Psychology; Medicine: Pathology and Forensic 
Medicine 
Fundación Educación 
Médica Spain Social Sciences: Education 
Gynecologic Oncology United States 
Medicine: Obstetrics, Gynecology and 
Oncology 
Indian Journal of Psychiatry India Medicine: Psychiatry and Mental Health 
Journal of Australian 
Studies Australia 
Arts and Humanities: History and Literature and 
Literary Theory; Social Sciences: Cultural 
Studies, Sociology, Political Science and 
International Relations 
Journal of Southern African 
Studies England 
Social Sciences: Sociology, Political Science, 
Geography, Planning and Development; Arts 
and Humanities: Miscellaneous 
Medical Education United States Education for health care professional 
Psychological Medicine England 
Medicine: Psychiatry and Mental Health; 
Psychology: Applied Psychology 
Social Science & Medicine United States Social science research on health 
Regarding the approaches of the articles, a predominance of studies in the area of Health (Phillips and 
Clarke, 2012; Turner et al., 2017) was observed, especially those focused on the incidence of health 
problems, including mental, resulting from stress and the consequent reduction in the production of 
these professionals, focused on people management practices. Another highlight was some studies on 
the situation of incarcerated people (DeHart, 2018; Piper and Nagy, 2018), which discuss the motivation 
for crimes committed and the possible influence of previous mental illnesses on these transgressive 
attitudes. 
The study by Turner et al. (2017) aimed to assess the impact of depletion on the productivity of 
gynecological oncologists during the first half of their careers. The data obtained were used to estimate 
the probability of burnout for male and female gynecological oncologists, the occurrence of depression, 
alcohol abuse, and early retirement. The authors report that burnout rates were significantly higher 
among women, 41% in comparison to 27% among men. They also experience sexual and moral 
harassment, wage inequality, decreased academic promotion, and stress-related to society's 
expectations for them to play their multiple roles. For the authors, this is a serious problem, given that 
the estimate is that, in a few years, 80% of professionals in this specialty are women. 
As for the studies on the situation of incarcerated people, mention is made, for example, of the research, 
carried out by Piper and Nagy (2018), which investigates the criminal careers and paths to the prison 
of 6,042 convicted women in Victoria between 1860 and 1920, and the risk factors associated with 
subsequent recurrence. His criminological studies found that the paths to prison differ between men and 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
women, given factors such as drug abuse, mental illness, family networks, migration, geographic 
mobility, urban location, socioeconomic circumstances, and past victimization more strongly associated 
with inmates. The results suggest that, although many of today's risk factors have historically been 
present, there have been considerable changes over time. 
It was noted the presence of articles (Gilaberte et al., 2012; Southern and Miller, 2012; Eisenberg-Guyot 
et al., 2020) that deal with the inferior position of women, with or without mental illness, in relation to 
men. This inferiority is also seen in labor relations, as discussed in several of the analyzed texts. In two 
of them (Brookes, 2011; Davis, 2018), professional women were only recognized for their great 
contribution to the area where they worked years after their death, and one of the justifications pointed 
out for this was their “madness”. 
As an illustration, the studies by Brookes (2011) and Davis (2018) are cited. In his study, Brookes 
(2011) explores Maude Abbott's internationally significant career in medicine and her parallel 
commitment to caring for her sister with mental illness. The research reveals the difficulties faced by 
an ambitious Canadian in the medical career from 1890 to 1920 and suggests that it was much more 
difficult for a female doctor to separate public and private life than for male doctors. Finally, Brookes 
points out that, although sometimes less qualified, men were recognized with promotions and 
financially much more than women with better qualifications. 
In turn, Davis (2018) study examines the turbulent relationships of South African writer Bessie Head 
with her editors in London and New York, during the process of publishing the work “A Question of 
Power” in 1973. The author traces the trade negotiations held in Serowe, Botswana, and the difficulties 
that Bessie Head faced in getting the manuscript accepted, maintaining her literary career, and her 
barriers to obtaining royalties or remuneration. According to the author, Bessie Head's biographers 
attributed her battles to her volatile nature and mental illness, but she also weighed the fact that she was 
an African woman. In the end, her work became one of the most acclaimed novels. In 1981, the work 
was classified by Black Scholar magazine as the eighth of the “15 most influential books of the decade”, 
and was listed as one of the “100 best books in Africa” in 2002, being translated into French and Spanish 
and entered several new pocket editions. For Bessie Head, however, the publishing process was one of 
frustration and disappointment that persisted until her death. The conflicts that have occurred between 
Bessie Head and her editors provide insight into the hidden power structures and inequalities endemic 
in the Anglo-American “writing world”, which is repeated in so many other “worlds”. 
The concern with the development or worsening of mental illnesses during the university and 
professional training years is brought up by Auerbach et al. (2016). The authors divided the research 
participants into two groups: university students with mental illnesses developed before and after 
enrollment at the university and the results were also stratified by gender. The comparison between pre 
and post-matriculation served to detect and prevent possible aggravations during the courses, as well as 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
to establish how many students received treatmentfor their problems. The previous presence of mental 
illnesses increases the concern about possible aggravations after entering university, marked by new 
demands and resulting attrition. The analyzes carried out on samples of men and women, found 
important differences between the groups, such as, for example, depression was the most frequent 
mental illness among women. Avoiding the potentiation of mental illness at the beginning of the 
university trajectory, can affect the permanence of university students in the courses and in the 
prevention of compromises that may interfere in the future professional career. The consequences for 
life at work can be innumerable: low qualification and remuneration, maladjustment, aggravations, 
absenteeism, etc. These are conditions that can lead to career dissatisfaction, stigma, and exclusion from 
the job market. 
Other studies deal with the influence of prejudice in the performance of professional activities. Jung et 
al. (2017) examine the perception, through an inventory, about mental illness among employees of 
health institutions. The hypothesis is that the professionals' conceptions and perceptions about mental 
illness interfere in the care and recovery of patients. This study was based on the stratification of data 
on prejudices by gender, age and brings an interesting discussion on stigma. In the same vein, Phillips 
and Clarke (2012) deal with the perception of medical students towards teachers who express respect 
or disrespect for differences, whether in classes or in patient care. Teachers are role models in the 
training of students and the way they position themselves can make them change their own attitudes 
and, with this, influence their professional future. 
The mentally ill women themselves are the focus of the study by Southern and Miller (2012), which 
collected life stories and, mainly, the career trajectories of fifteen New Zealand indigenous women. It 
is a study that brings contributions to cultural diversity and the centrality of work to the identity of 
women with mental illness. 
Guiding the final reflection of the qualitative discussion, a cloud of keywords was elaborated, extracted 
from the articles, and analyzed by their frequency, seeking to know which terms are most cited. Figure 
3 shows that the terms most cited by the articles are in the center of the map and that, the longer the 
term, the more mentioned it was, highlighting: “Mental Illness” and “Stigma”. Interestingly, there were 
no articles that dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic effects on mental health. This is believed to have 
occurred due to the aforementioned time required for the publication of new research. 
Other central terms for the debate are also highlighted in Figure 3, such as “Education” and “Violence”. 
It can even be inferred that education and violence are proportionally inverse terms: the more education 
a society has, the less violence and discrimination it causes/suffers. Education, therefore, is related to 
the aforementioned readiness to accept differences, which depends on how, for example, mental health 
is discussed and included in different countries and contexts. In addition, at least three articles (Phillips 
and Clarke, 2012; Auerbach et al., 2016; Turner et al. 2017) brought the relevance of discriminatory 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
behaviors or not of mental health, in situations of university education or the beginning of a professional 
career. 
“Identity” and “Print Culture” are also connected, as accepting the identities of individuals includes 
accepting their differences. The study carried out by Southern and Miller (2012) on indigenous women 
from New Zealand is an example of how much culture and identity have an important position in labor 
relations. “Botswana” and “South Africa”, mentioned in the article by Davis (2018), refer us to 
intersectionalities since the discriminations and stigmas add up, therefore, a woman from peripheral 
countries has her difficulties amplified. It is noted that the debate on the themes of this study has 
particularities, since it is addressed in several studies and from multiple perspectives. 
 
 
Figure 3. Keywords frequency cloud 
Source: Prepared by the authors according to research data. 
Finally, there was a lack of studies in Social Sciences and especially in Administration that addresses 
the theme of stigma linked to women with mental illnesses and the consequent barrier that this causes 
for their insertion and permanence in the labor market. There were also no articles that addressed the 
impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which made it even more difficult for these women to enter 
the labor market and their living conditions as a whole. 
Although men represent between 60% and 80% of victims by Covid-19, women are more severely 
affected by this disease, as pointed out in the report “Women at the heart of the fight against the Covid-
19 crisis”, released at the end of March 2021 by UN Women, an entity of the United Nations 
Organization for gender equality and empowerment (UN, 2021b). They are more exposed to the risk of 
contamination and to the social vulnerabilities resulting from the pandemic, such as unemployment, 
violence, lack of access to health services, and increased poverty, which most directly affects women 
with mental illnesses - particularly in peripheral countries, being Brazil an example. 
In addition, the lack of discussions on ways to prevent and end this prejudice was confirmed by reading 
the articles. This makes it difficult to reach the ODS 5.1 e 5.5 (by 2030, achieve gender equality and 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
empower all women and girls), 8.5 (achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all 
women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of 
equal value), e 10.2 (empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, 
irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status), 
especially in this pandemic period (UN, 2021a). 
5. Conclusions 
The proposed revisionary research made a survey of publications on the stigmatization of women with 
mental illnesses in the labor market, without being limited to the synthesis of the results found in the 
ten-year time frame. The study also sought to reflect on the contexts and themes related to those 
proposed, from the qualified reading of the articles, in order to expand and contribute to the theoretical 
debate on the theme. 
The data collection and analysis are distinguished by their attention to relevant academic and social 
topics, without disregarding the importance of qualitative and quantitative analyzes, carried out with 
methodological rigor. The methodological procedures followed criteria for the selection and reading of 
the texts, developed in defined stages, for the treatment of the results. 
It was evident that the authors of the selected papers explore themes in research in which the data are 
specific and, therefore, not generalizable. In addition, they published only once on the topic, configuring 
sparse studies on specific realities. Thus, the present survey provides not only the panorama of what 
was already researched in the period, but also possible gaps that can be addressed in future studies. 
From the studies selected and analyzed, the concern with the training of sensitive professionals to work 
with the differences, especially those resulting from psychological suffering, in the articles that deal 
with the training of university students, doctors, and other helping professions. Other articles address 
the point of view of people with mental illness or their caregivers, trying to revealfrom the inside how 
much this suffering has echoes in social reality, which contributes to their relief or aggravation. 
Incarcerated people receive attention when the topic is mental health, and research in this context has 
provided insights into the previous psychological distress-causing suffering, as well as the suffering 
resulting from prolonged confinement. The latter case can be associated with the current experience of 
social isolation due to the pandemic. 
Social inclusion through work, our focus, plays an extremely important role in the process of reducing 
social stigma through mental health. In addition, it is an essential condition for guaranteeing the human 
rights of these women, as well as accelerating towards progress and the achievement of the 
aforementioned Sustainable Development Goals, foreseen by the Global Agenda. According to the UN 
document itself (UN, 2021b), "the pandemic has had and will continue to have a major impact on the 
health and well-being of many vulnerable groups", and "women are among the most affected". 
27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021 
 
The results show that the consequences for women who suffer from the stigma related to mental illness 
are serious and their discrimination causes innumerable damages, such as low self-esteem, low self-
confidence, and low quality of life. It is known how much these damages are impactful, since, in 
general, they end up reflecting on an entire family, often provided by this woman. Society must change 
its outlook and practice, aiming at the acceptance of diversity and social inclusion through work. 
Finally, given this complex and integrated scope, this study also sought to identify research gaps that 
can be considered in future works in the area, bringing them to the academic debate, such as the impacts 
of the pandemic on the insertion of women as mental illnesses; analysis of the other social markers of 
difference - such as class, race, and sexuality - intersected with the theme of mental illness; changes 
related to inclusive school and university education and their impact on the labor market; and, the role 
of Human Resources managers in the inclusion and maintenance of women with mental illnesses in the 
organizational environment. 
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