Journal of Women's Studies and Research in Iran and Muslim Countries
Journal of Women's Studies and Research in Iran and Muslim Countries
Title: Are Mental Health and Social Anxiety Related to the Working Status of the Women?
WHO has defined health in terms of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not the mere absence of disease or disability (Murthy, 1993). The constitution of WHO asserts that 'the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.'
By: Dr. Braj Bhushan
(Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, INDIA)
However, the health status of women remains precarious, especially in the developing nations. We are still far from an equal status to both men and women on every social indicator. The status of women in the developing countries is still grim. More than 80% of the pregnant women in Asia and Africa suffer from nutritional anemia and deliver babies with birth weight as low as 15% (in Africa) and 20% (in Asia). Worst to that is the fact that South Asia, predominantly Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, witness over half of all the maternal deaths in the world. More than one billion people, mostly women, are living in extreme poverty and the change in the trend makes few experts feel the onset of "feminization of poverty" (Bassiri, 1994).
In a fortunate turn, at the Indian front a relatively open and competitive entry scheme has made young women enter various professions, mostly at the lower level, with a proportionately less number at the middle level and a handful at the higher level. Though the economic and professional status has contributed to their sense of security and the ability to face otherwise challenging social situations, various other factors have contributed to their sense of insecurity. The dual task of handling home and job mixed with a real or perceived threat against women may make them feel rejected, isolated and tense. This feeling of impotency or Ineptitude and Social and Interpersonal deprivation leads to insecurity (Murray, 1938) with certain characteristics such as humiliation, shame, rejection and failure.
In a patriarchal society where males dominate the domestic as well as the work front, a growing sense of anxiety is imperative. The social situations that make them uncertain and hesitant also make them socially anxious, 'a state of anxiety resulting from the prospect or presence of interpersonal evaluation in real or imagined social settings' (Schlenker & Leary, 1982). The ways they are perceived and evaluated by others generate social anxiety in them (Sheikh & Bhushan, 2002). The atrocities against women are the other contributory factor.
Several studies have explored the well-being of women and the stress they experience at the work front (Amatea & Fong, 1991; Haw, 1982; Jenkins, 1997; Lennon, 1994; Lennon & Rosenfeld, 1992; Nelson & Burke, 2000; Sherr & Lawrence, 2000). Previous studies have indiscriminately seen mental health and illness and found mental illness more common among women (Carstairs & Kapur, 1976; Chakraborty, 1990; Dube, 1970; and Isaac & Kapur, 1980). Gutttentag et al. (1980) went to the extent that 'women predominate in all countries and all time periods' in morbidity rate for depression (p. 73). In WHO review, Dennerstein et al. (1993) mentioned greater prevalence of depression, phobia, OCN, somatic disorders and panic disorder in women. A higher prevalence of major depression, simple phobias and agoraphobia in women was also reported by Russo and Green (1993). Even, the prevalence of mental distress in the Indian society has been variedly reported from 23.79 per thousand (Dube, 1970) up to 129 per thousand (Chakraborty, 1990).
Barring few exceptions the well-being of working women, with special reference to Indian community and drastic social changes, has been neglected. In the Fourth Educational Survey of NCERT, Panda (1991) did address issues like stress, mental health and adjustment. Later, Sinha (1997) found that working status of women had a significant effect on anxiety. In yet another interesting investigation Mukhopadhyay (1997) attempted to correlate working status of women and its impact on health. However, families still remaining the centripetal force in the Indian subcontinent, many equally qualified women have either opted out of their profession or have remained in their families only.
Keeping this into account, a study was undertaken to investigate the sense of security-insecurity and feeling of social-anxiety in the working class Indian women keeping their overall health into account. The sample consisted of 30 working women (Mean age = 32.6 years, S.D. + 3.13) who were teachers in the non-government junior colleges and 30 non-working women (Mean age = 33.83 years, S.D. + 3.07) who were housewives. Both the samples were randomly selected and matched on age, educational qualifications and family type.
Watson and Friend's (1969) Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) and Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) Scales adopted by Sheikh (1989) was used to measure the degree of social anxiety, whereas G.C. Pati's (1975) Insecurity Questionnaire was used to measure the level of insecurity of the subjects. It consisted of 20 items measuring feelings of insecurity in various spheres of an individual's life. P.G.I. Well-Being Scale (Moudgil, Verma, Kaur & Pal, 1986) was used to measure the general well-being of the subjects. The scale consists of 20 items and covers several aspects of adjustment.
The results of the study unambiguously suggests the importance of economic freedom, social status and other similar attributes inasmuch as the working women feels more secured as compared to their non-working counterparts. Also, they have relatively and significantly low social anxiety than the non-working matched controls. The mental health of the working women also appears sounder. It appears imperative that the traditional Indian society has held teaching professionals in high self-esteem making them, in turn, feel more secured as compared to the otherwise equally qualified counterpart. Also, sustained exposure to classroom scrutiny and other such occasions have helped them cope with the tendency to avoid a socially distressful situation. Female teachers have been found more capable of coping with ordinary demands and stresses of life (Kamau, 1992).
Although, the sense of insecurity adversely affects women in general, the mental health of working women gets more affected as they are more sensitive to negative evaluation. The non-working women, on the other hand, tend to avoid the socially distressful situation more. Social anxiety and distress, as well as fear of negative evaluation, adversely influences the mental health of women in general, but economic autonomy as well as temporary absence of the family factors may help the working women. Despite that, once acquired, the working women's mental health is more hampered because of the tendency to avoid distressful situations, which is inevitable in the working situation. Moreover, the non-working women spend a quantity as well as quality time with the family members, thereby consolidated emotional bond help them remain mentally healthy. Some existential and experiential realm is attributed to human bonding and it does positively help the individuals maintain their mental health. The findings of this study corroborate the earlier observations of Mukhopadhyay (1997) and Sinha (1997).
The conceptual frame of mental health between the 1950s and the 1970s has laid emphasis on constructs like 'happiness', 'adjustment', 'foundational values', 'social roles', etc. Padma (1991) has reported correlation between security-insecurity and adjustment problems. Also, as these working women play a dual role in the family and the workplace, they experience a sustained stress to cope in both the conditions and hence their mental well-being gets affected (Mukhopadhyay, 1997). Irrespective of the fact that they are the earning member of the family, the mental distress of women remain unacknowledged within families (Isaac & Kapur, 1980), specially 'Indian families do underestimate mental distress levels in women' (Davar, 1999, p. 48). Also, social discipline and expected role seemingly induces an anxiety in them.
The otherwise equally qualified women who are staying at home or have been made to stay at home may have a feeling of under utility of their talent and hence derive frustration out of it. Also, a feeling that their complete involvement at the domestic front goes unacknowledged may intensify the problem.
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