Women’s Experience of Work

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Mental Health

Another individual WLFP outcome is mental health. Work setting and job conditions have a significant effect on women’s reactions to their work. For instance, female medical students were found to be more dominant, independent, and active than women educated in other fields(Mandelbaum,1978). The women medical students also exhibited different personality traits than male medical students. For example, the women scored higher than the men on measures of self-confidence, autonomy, and aggression, while scoring lower on difference and need for affiliation. Another study of women found that job conditions that encourage self-direction are related to effective intellectual functioning, openness, and flexibility. Work is not always good for women’s mental health. Competing demands at work, as well as the absence of demand and challenge, lead to stress at work-slightly more for women than for men. But the demands of home and family are source of stress of women. Employed men and employed women without children experience essentially equal numbers of demands; married employed women, however, have more demands on them than do married men. Of particular interest is that this research found that non employed wives have been more demands on them. While it would seem that married employed women have more demands on them than married un employed women, Gove and Geerken (1977) suggest that it is the kinds of demands experienced that makes the difference. Apparently the demands of children and housework can adversely affect mental health. This research also found that employed men expressed the lowest levels of loneliness and desire to be left alone. Married employed women expressed higher levels of these feelings, and married unemployed women expressed the highest lavels.