By Dr Malini Saba

There is a truth many women carry quietly, almost instinctively, yet the world rarely acknowledges it: women hold together not just households but economies. The weight they carry is emotional, mental, physical, and often invisible. And when this weight becomes too heavy, the cost is not only personal; it is economic.

For years, I have worked across boardrooms, factories, rural communities, research labs, and policy forums. No matter the country or the industry, I find the same pattern repeating: when a woman’s mental well-being collapses, entire systems shake. When she thrives, everything around her strengthens.

This is the multiplier effect we seldom talk about but urgently need to.

The Burnout No One Sees, but Everyone Depends On

Women’s burnout is almost always described as an individual struggle. Yet the numbers tell a much wider story.

The WHO reports significantly higher stress and anxiety rates among women. McKinsey’s 2023 “Women in the Workplace” study shows nearly half of working women feel burnt out. Women perform 75% of the world’s unpaid care work, which is worth over US$ 11 trillion a year globally (UN Women). It reminds us that women still carry most of the world’s unpaid care work, which quietly fuels households, education systems, and labour markets.

No economy can genuinely grow when the people holding up half its foundation are running on empty.

Mental Health Is an Economic Input, Just Like Labour or Capital

Economists like Amartya Sen and Esther Duflo have shown, time and again, that societies progress faster when women do well. That includes mental well-being, not just employment or education.

A single woman’s stability creates a chain reaction:

• Children develop better and perform better in school.
• Workplaces benefit from stronger leadership, fewer absences, and higher productivity.
• Families move out of cycles of insecurity.
• Communities become more cohesive and resilient.

This is not self-help talk. This is development economics.

Leaders like Melinda Gates, Michelle Obama, Indra Nooyi, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have echoed similar arguments on global platforms, pointing out that when women’s well-being improves, entire nations accelerate.

The Problem Is Not Women. The Problem Is the System.

For far too long, women have been told to:
“Try to balance better.”
“Take care of yourself.”
“set boundaries”,
“Manage stress more smartly.”

But burnout is not a personal failure. It is a structural malfunction.

Physician and author Dr Gabor Maté often describes burnout as a mismatch between people and the environments they live or work in. He is right. Women are not burning out because they are weak. They are burning out because systems were never designed with their realities in mind.

Where the Real Change Must Happen

1. Institutions need to count what women carry.

Governments must recognise caregiving as economic work, expand access to mental health support, and incorporate women’s mental well-being into public health strategies. Countries that do this, such as Norway and Sweden, consistently have stronger social outcomes.

2. Workplaces need to rethink productivity.

Companies like Deloitte, Google, and others highlighted in Harvard Business Review have shown that when organisations take women’s mental load seriously, retention rises, creativity increases, and teams perform better. Well-being is not a corporate favour; it is an economic strategy.

3. Homes must become more balanced.

Family environments shape the emotional climate for the next generation. When household responsibilities are shared fairly, women gain the time and mental clarity to grow, create, and contribute far more meaningfully.

The Multiplier Effect: Why One Woman’s Well-Being Lifts Many

One insight I’ve seen repeated throughout my work with the Saba Family Foundation and through partnerships with institutions like Stanford University Medical Center and the Clinton Foundation is this: investing in one woman never stops with one woman.

It benefits her children, her workplace, her extended family, and her community. It shapes local economies; it influences generational outcomes.

The returns ripple outward for years.

This is why mental health cannot remain a private conversation whispered behind closed doors. It must become part of policy, leadership decisions, public health discussions, and economic planning.

A Future Built on Shared Strength

Women have always been central to the world’s progress, whether the world admits it or not. Strengthening their mental well-being is not charity, and it is not a favour. It is one of the smartest and most impactful economic decisions any society can make.

Because when a woman is mentally supported, she does not rise alone. She lifts everyone connected to her and everyone who will come after her.

That is the multiplier effect.
That is how real change begins.