A worrying trend of negativity among women was revealed by a survey of 2,000 women - with one in seven women admitting to criticising themselves regularly throughout their day.

 

Most of those surveyed wanted to lose weight, and image-based criticisms were by far the most prevalent.

 

Not earning enough money and deliberately¹ deflecting² compliments were other common put-downs.

 

Selfies and social media platforms such as Instagram were blamed as being a driving force behind today's visual culture.

 

Women are bombarded with images of perfection while at the same time expected to balance both working lives and family lives, which experts concluded led to women's critical relationships with themselves.

 

Lifestyle judgements were also found to be prevalent, including not earning enough money or having the 'right' job.

 

'Today's hectic³ and visually-driven world has meant that we're seeing a rise in women being self-critical, from the way they look to the way they feel at work,' said Zoe Griffiths, Head of Public Health and Programme at Weight Watchers, which conducted the survey.

 

'Our research has shown that being unkind to ourselves has been an underlying⁴ theme for women for many years, but a set of very modern cultural conditions have increased the intensity⁵ of this unkindness which are hard to avoid.

 

'At Weight Watchers we know that to adopt a healthy lifestyle it is important to build a better relationship with yourself in order to make a positive change.'

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