Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

The Introduction frames emotional exhaustion as a social and structural problem rather than an individual “failure,” arguing that women’s chronic fatigue stems from living in systems that demand endless giving. The authors combine personal narrative, psychological research, and cultural critique to show how “wellness” has been commodified into yet another expectation, accessible mainly to those with privilege, while ordinary women are urged to fix exhaustion with bubble baths and other self-help trends. They use psychologist Herbert Freudenberger’s three-part definition of burnout to situate the phenomenon historically but emphasize that emotional exhaustion is the component most consistently linked to harm, especially for women in caregiving roles. This allows the chapter to shift from individual emotion to the wider forces that sustain burnout.

The most significant conceptual contribution is the authors’ elaboration on “Human Giver Syndrome” (xiii), an idea drawn from philosopher Kate Manne’s work on misogyny. The authors highlight how gendered expectations—specifically, the expectation that women are morally obligated to tend to others’ needs—restrict women’s emotional expression and impede their ability to complete the body’s stress response cycle. This framing is culturally specific, rooted in Western gender norms, yet resonates across societies where women are socialized into self-sacrifice. At the same time, the Introduction reveals an implicit bias: It assumes a readership that identifies as women and shares similar pressures tied to motherhood, partnership, and wage labor, which may not capture the full range of identities or socioeconomic constraints that shape burnout globally.