Main description:

Until recently, studies of women's health received scant research attention in the context of the overall magnitude of research conducted on health. Even for health issues that affect both men and women, most research has been limited to male subjects, leaving a large gap in our knowledge base concerning women's health. Finally, the decade of the 1990s is ushering in a shift in this inequity. In 1990 the U.S. National Institutes of Health issued a compelling report citing the lack of sufficient research on women's health as a major gap in our knowledge, and a mandate has been issued to add women as study subjects in research or to document why they have not been included. Such directives will undoubtedly lead to a much-needed burgeoning of research activities in the area of women's health as we approach the twenty-first century. Despite limited research resources, however, there have been steady, scientifically rigorous voices in the wilderness for the last several years, and many of the best investigators are represented in this volume. These workers have led the vanguard in exploring psychosocial factors that are likely to differentially affect women's and men's health. For example, women and men engage in social roles that often differ, if not in quantity, then certainly in quality. Sex differences in role expectations, environmen tal qualities, role burdens related to the domains of work and family, and abilities to adapt to and cope with stressful situations may have a distinctive impact on health.

Contents:

I. Sex Differences: Facts and Myths.- 1. Gender Segregation in the Workplace: Continuities and Discontinuities from Childhood to Adulthood.- The Prevalence of Gender Segregation in Childhood.- Causal Factors Underlying Gender Segregation.- Distinctive Cultures in Boys' and Girls' Groups.- Group Membership and In-Group Loyalties.- Adolescence and Cross-Sex Attraction.- References.- 2. Effects of Labor Force Participation on Sex Differences in Mortality and Morbidity.- Sex Differences in Mortality and Morbidity.- Contributions of Occupational Hazards to Sex Differences in Health.- Health-Related Behavior: A Possible Link between Labor Force Participation and Sex Differences in Health.- Effects of Labor Force Participation on Women's and Men's Health.- Labor Force Participation Rates and Sex Differences in Mortality Rates: Ecological Analyses.- Conclusions.- References.- 3. The Psychophysiology of Sex Differences as Related to Occupational Status.- A Biopsychosocial Framework.- Changing Patterns of Sex Differences in Reactivity.- Stress On and Off the Job in White-Collar Workers at Volvo.- Reactivity and "Unwinding".- Concluding Remarks.- References.- II. Work and Family: Multiple Roles.- 4. The Forms of Women's Work.- The Forms of Work.- Patterns of Productive Behavior in the United States.- Causes and Consequences of Productive Work.- Implications for Policy.- References.- 5. Coping with Role Overload.- Theoretical Basis for the Proposed Work.- Overview of Research Program.- Study 1: Role Strain and Conflict in Married Women Professionals with Young Children.- Findings of the Study.- Sex Differences in Combining Work and Family: Preliminary Analyses of Data from the Physician Study.- Future Research Directions.- References.- 6. The Relationship between Women's Work and Family Roles and Their Subjective Well-Being and Psychological Distress.- Overview.- The Study.- I. Which Aspects of Work Are Related to Mental-Health Measures?.- II. Does Family-Role Occupancy Affect the Relationship between the Mental-Health Measures and the Work-Reward and Work-Concern Factors?.- III. Does Family-Role Quality Affect the Relationship between Mental-Health Measures and Work-Reward and Work-Concern Factors?.- Discussion and Conclusions.- References.- III. Work Load and Cardiovascular Health.- 7. Women, Work-Related Stress, and Smoking.- Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking among Women.- Health Consequences of Smoking.- Smoking and Work.- The Women and Health Study.- Stress and Smoking.- Smoking and Affect Regulation.- A Model of Stress, Distress, and Smoking.- Implications for Smoking Cessation Programs.- References.- 8. The Effect of Job Demands, Job Control, and New Technologies on the Health of Employed Women: A Review.- Empirical Support for the Job Strain Model in Women.- Health Effects of Clerical Employment.- Health Effects of VDT Work.- Health Effects of Nursing Occupations.- Future Research.- References.- 9. Occupational Stress and Blood Pressure: Studies in Working Men and Women.- Use of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring to Study Psychosocial Influences on Blood Pressure.- Use of Echocardiography for Studying the Influence of Psychological Factors on the Heart.- The Role of Occupational Stress in Raising Blood Pressure.- Are There Gender Differences in the Associations between Stress and Blood Pressure?.- Conclusions.- References.- 10. On Cardiovascular Health in Women: Results from Epidemiological and Psychosocial Studies in Sweden.- International Trends in Coronary Heart Disease Mortality for Men and Women.- Job Characteristics of Different Occupations: Associations on an Aggregated Level.- Comparison of Risk Factors between Men and Women in the Same Occupations.- Personality Characteristics and Coronary Heart Disease in Women.- References.- IV. Interaction Between Women's Work and Reproductive Issues.- 11. Reproductive Technologies, Women's Health, and Career Choices.- Control of Fertility.- Contraceptive Practice.- Infertility.- Conclusions.- References.- 12. Women, Work, and Menopause.- Meanings of the Menopause.- The Significance of Ovarian Hormones.- Work, Social Loss, and Menopause Symptoms.- Yale Mid-Life Study Findings Regarding Menopause Symptoms and Work.- Conclusions.- References.- 13. Premenstrual Distress: Implications for Women's Working Capacity and Quality of Life.- Methodological Problems.- Psychological Correlates of Premenstrual Syndrome.- Biochemical Factors.- Does PMS Affect Women's Working Capacity and Quality of Life?.- A Study of Women with Premenstrual Symptoms: Psychological Characteristics and Occupational Stress.- Conclusions.- References.- V. Conclusion.- 14. Summary and Implications for Future Research.