Women Feel Guilty All the Time, At Least Once a Day

A new study has dubbed our generation the guilty-all-the-time generation (or the GAT) after confirming that as many as 96 percent of women feel guilty at least once a day, all the time. Most of the time, it’s not even for things they can be held accountable for.

It’s a well known fact that, because they tend to internalize everything (as compared to men), the ladies feel more guilt than their counterparts. However, it seems they do so to a greater extent than previously believed.

The Daily Mail reports that a new survey conducted by Stylist on over 1,320 women (and only 55 men) has left no trace of doubt about how much guilt women feel on a daily basis – and men don’t.

For instance, women can feel guilty of anything from not eating healthy, skipping gym and consequently gaining some weight, to being not good enough at work or too distant with their partners and loved ones.

Men, on the other hand, don’t have this problem – and they’re better off for it because they externalize things that go wrong in their life, experts explain for the British publication.

“Women feel guilt when they don’t think they are being good enough in their various roles – especially as wife, mother and daughter,” Susan Carrell, author of “Escaping Toxic Guilt,” says.

“That’s because familial, cultural and religious tenets teach women that being ‘good’ is the most important thing. When a woman feels she is not putting another first, she quickly feels like she’s doing something bad, then guilt rushes in,” Carrell says.

Men find external factors to pin the blame on even for some actions that are probably their own doing.

“Men tend to externalize faults. They fail an exam because ‘the room was too hot’ while women are more likely to internalize faults and would be more likely to admit to feeling guilty because ‘I am stupid’,” Dr Cynthia McVey of the Glasgow Caledonian University explains for the same publication.