There are a lot of reasons why this study is important. We know that women have higher levels of burnout than men, and we know that one of the major contributing factors to that is that women have often been “voluntold” or volunteered for invisible work that is necessary to keep organizations afloat to address diversity, equity and inclusion topics to ensure that the mental health of the individuals in the organization is being addressed. We know that women take on a lot of invisible work that allows health care systems, organizations and individuals to succeed and do extremely well. Yet, women are often not given credit or acknowledged for that work, and all of this has contributed to high levels of women leaving the workforce, especially in health care during the past several years and likely even longer.

This type of research is interesting because it suggests one of the contributing factors to increased professional stress and burnout among women could potentially be that women may not be asking for extensions on deadlines as much as their male colleagues. While this fact may be true, the real questions to ask are, “Why is that the case?” and, “How can we fix the system so men and women feel equally able to request extensions?” Women often feel the need to exceed expectations and complete 15 of the 10 tasks they are assigned to in order to be seen as equivalent to their male colleagues. Because of this, women may not ask for extensions because they are concerned as to how it will be perceived not only among their superiors, but also among their peers. This may be in large part because of the implicit and explicit biases, comments, microagressions and macroaggressions that women are often forced to manage when they are completing their work.

Data consistently show that women are not equitably acknowledged through awards or opportunities such as leadership positions and moving up the ranks, and we know that women continue to be paid less. Many times, this results in women leaving the workforce because they are working harder than their colleagues and still not treated or seen equally or equitably. And for women with intersectional identities, this is even more pronounced. What we are seeing as a direct result of this is that women are experiencing burnout because they can never complete the tasks at hand — the tasks at hand never end. Women are leaving medicine because of all of this.

Something that was very interesting in the study was that the researchers found no evidence that women are judged more harshly than men when asked for a time extension. Although this may be the case in this study, if additional similar studies were conducted that looked at not only how these women are being seen by their superiors but also how they are seen and interact with their colleagues, then we may see very different results. That is one limitation of this study. These data are also based on laboratory studies as opposed to evaluating actual interpersonal outcomes, and there were no obvious repercussions associated with the extension request. These data may be different when evaluated in a real-world setting, with actual repercussions to extensions, which is more applicable to real-world scenarios. It is likely the results would be different if this study was replicated outside of the laboratory setting.

Anecdotally, I can say that women do consistently report they are judged more harshly than men when it comes to asking for more time to complete their tasks or asking for accommodations due to child care or family responsibilities. When men request time off for family obligations, they are more likely to be seen as “exceptional parents,” but when women ask for the same thing, they are often described as “lazy” or not as dedicated to their careers. Another very likely reason why women are uncomfortable asking for these extensions is because they may not want to put the burden on others. They may also have experienced in some way, shape or form explicit or implicit bias as a direct result of asking for any sort of accommodations.

The proposed solution of formal policies to facilitate deadline extension requests may be a first step in making it easier to request extensions; however, it will also require a more intentional deep dive into the structures that have resulted in women perceiving their request for an extension to be viewed in a negative light. This will require a multifactorial approach that should include addressing the structural barriers that contribute to the phenomenon described in this study of “women don’t ask.”