Employment, Attitudes Toward Employment, and Women's Health

Abstract

The relationships between self-reported general health, employment, and attitudes toward the employment of married women have been analyzed for a representative sample of married, middle-aged women in the United States. The cross-sectional data indicate that women who were in the labor force had better health than women who were out of the labor force. In addition, women whose labor force status was compatible with their attitudes toward employment tended to have better health than women for whom there was a discrepancy between labor force status and attitudes. Analysis of the longitudinal data indicate that several causal mechanisms contributed to the relationships observed in the cross-sectional data. For the women with favorable attitudes toward employment, it appears that being a housewife had more detrimental effects on health than being employed. In contrast, for the women with unfavorable or neutral attitudes toward employment, it appears that employment status did not affect health. For healthy women, being employed may have contributed to more favorable attitudes toward employment. Healthy women were more likely than unhealthy women to stay in the labor force. Thus, it appears that there are multiple causal relationships linking employment status, attitudes toward employment and women's health.

Psychosocial predictors of mortality in 83 women with premature acute myocardial infarction.

“…In the 56 women randomized to Type A/cardiac counseling who completed a life satisfaction questionnaire at entry, those who were divorced or employed without a college degree were significantly more dissatisfied with their lives than those who were not. Poor role fit predicted self-reports of health over a 5-year follow-up in 3425 healthy women (35), even after adjustments for socioeconomic status.…”

Work and Depression Among Women in the Federal Republic of Germany

“…The association between job conditions and depression may apply to both men and women; however, only a limiied portion of the literature deals with job conditions that lead to negative health outcomes among women (Andrisani & Shapiro, 1978;Georg, Stuppardt, & Zoike, 1981;Haw, 1982;Stellman, 1978;Verbrugge, 1986;Waldron, 1986). In particular, .the combined effects of the specific job conditions tested in this research-job decision latitude and job demands-have only rarely been tested among women.…”

Exploring the Consequences of Gender Ideology–Work Discrepancies

“…First, several studies suggest that gender ideology moderates the relationship between work divisions and well-being. Specifically, gender liberals with traditional work patterns and gender conservatives with non-traditional work patterns experience less positive affect (Krause and Markides 1985), poorer health (Waldron and Herold 1986), and greater anxiety (Parry 1987) when compared to individuals whose work patterns match their gender ideology. Second, numerous studies show that individuals' family work preferences and expectations (which are likely to be a product of gender role attitudes) moderate the relationship between family work divisions and well-being, with work divisions inconsistent with preferences or expectations increasing distress (Goldberg and Perry-Jenkins 2004;Hock and DeMeis 1990;Klein et al 1998;Ross et al 1983), anxiety (Klein et al 1998), and parental adjustment difficulties (Kalmuss et al 1992).…”