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A comparative study of Mental health of Working Women and house wives.

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Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing © 2014 Indian Association of Health,
2014, 5(11), 1398-1400 Research and Welfare
http://www.iahrw.com/index.php/home/journal_detail/19#list ISSN-p-2229-5356,e-2321-3698

A comparative study of mental health of

working women and housewives
Muntazir Maqbool, Neharshi Shrivastava and Manju Pandey
Department of Psychology, HNB Garhwal University (A Central University), Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand

The main purpose of present study was to find out the mental health of working women and housewives. The sample
consists of 100 women (50 working women and 50 housewives) randomly selected from Baramulla district of J&K
state. The research tool used to assess Mental Health of working women and housewives was Mental Health
Questionnaire (M.H.Q) developed and standardized by Dr. Kamlesh Sharma. Here 't' test was applied for statistical
analysis of data to check the significance of difference in mental health of working women and housewives.
Difference in mental health level of working women and housewives was significant at 0.05 level so null hypothesis
was accepted and result shows that the housewives has better Mental Health in comparison to working women.

Keywords: mental health, working women, housewives

In free India, women have been entering salaried, remunerative,
occupations and professions in increasing number. The numerical
growth of women taking up employment in various capacities can be
witnessed in a busy area of any of the large cities in India. Women
from the lower strata of society have always worked for wages in this
country. Those upper class and middle class were mostly confined to
their homes. In independent India they have started coming out of
their seclusion and are entering the vocation that were largely the
preserves of men. But even then in the recruitment process women
are given fewer opportunities than men. If both the man and women
have an equal qualification preference is given to the men than
women. There is an inbuilt conviction that women are capable of less
work than men experience. These problems tend to make women less
eager to progress in their careers. Indeed many of them choose less
demanding jobs for which they may even be over- qualified. A
woman's work is not merely confined to paid employment. She has to
almost shoulder the burden of household chores as well. A woman
could still bear up with these problems if she had control over the
money she earns. But in most families even now her salary is handed
over to father, husband or in laws. So the basic motive for seeking
employment of getting independence is nullified in many women's
case. Problems of gender bias beset women in the industrial sector.
Technological advancement results in retrenchment of women
employees. No one thinks of upgrading their skills. Maternity leave
is seldom given. It is much easier to terminate the woman's
employment and hire someone else. Most of the problems that beset
working women are in reality rooted in the social perspective of the
house keepers, child bearers and readers. This typecast role model
continues to put obstacles before the working women. A fundamental
change is required in the attitudes of the employers, policy makers,
family members and other (Khodidas, 2013) .
Among the group of women, there is diversity of values. Working
women has different values than non-working and other adult
women. In modern society, the social and community environment is
full of social and moral pollution. Hence there are many problems of
working women in different fields.“A working women”, means a
Correspondence should be sent to Muntazir Maqbool
Department of Psychology, HNB Garhwal University (A Central
University), Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand
woman who comes out of her home to take up a gainful
employment”. The women of all the three strata can be included in
this. In traditional Indian society, it was under gross economic
necessity and under adverse circumstances but today society's
attitude towards married women has considerably changed and they
are entering into remunerative vocations.
“A Housewife”, means a woman who is not engaged in any type
of remunerative or honorary job. The married women's best place
was thought to be her home. She was supposed to do the household
work and take care of her husband and children.
Mental health is an integral and essential component of health.
The WHO constitution states: "Health is a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity." An important consequence of this definition is
that mental health is described as more than the absence of mental
disorders or disabilities.
Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual
realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of
life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his
or her community. In this positive sense, mental health is the
foundation for individual well-being and the effective functioning of
a community.
Mental health can be defined as the ability to make adequate
social and emotional adjustments to the environment, on the plane of
reality. In other words it is the ability to face and accept the realities
of life (Bhatia, 1982).
Multiple social, psychological, and biological factors determine
the level of mental health of a person at any point of time. For
example, persistent socio-economic pressures are recognized risks
to mental health for individuals and communities. The clearest
evidence is associated with indicators of poverty, including low
levels of education.
Poor mental health is also associated with rapid social change,
stressful work conditions, gender discrimination, social exclusion,
unhealthy lifestyle, risks of violence and physical ill-health and
human rights violations.
In a book entitled mental hygiene in public health Lewkan has
written that mentally healthy individual is one who is himself
satisfied, lives peacefully with his neighbors, makes healthy citizens
 Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing 2014, 5(11), 1398-1400 1399

of his children and even after performing these fundamentals duties
has enough energy left to do something of benefit to society.
Possessing mental health, an individual can adjust properly to his
environment, and can make the best effort for his own, his family's
and his society's progress and betterment. The chief characteristic of
mental health is adjustment. The greater the degree of successful
adjustment the greater will be the mental health of the individual.
Lesser mental health will lead to less adjustment and greater conflict.
There are also specific psychological and personality factors that
make people vulnerable to mental disorders. Lastly, there are some
biological causes of mental disorders including genetic factors and
imbalances in chemicals in the brain.
Singh (2006) conducted descriptive survey method on
'Assessment of Mental health' status of middle aged female school
teacher of Varanasi city'. A random sample of 50 middle aged female
school teachers working in government girl's school. The researcher
concluded that the mental health scores highlight that working
women are trapped in a situation where they are getting difficulty in
coping.
Dudra and Jogsan (2012) found that the basic area of mental health
reveals significant difference of working and non-working woman
(House wives). The non-working woman received higher mean score
73.92 as compared to the working woman 68.80. There has mean
difference is 5.12 and the standard deviation score of working woman
received 9.26 and the non-working woman received 10.72. So we can
say that non-working woman have a good mental health than the
working woman. The t value of mental health is 2.36. It is clearly
revealed from the calculated data that there is a significant difference of
mental health on working and non-working woman. In simple terms it
was concluded that mental health of working woman is lesser than non-
working woman.
Khodidas (2013) found the significant difference in the mental
health level among working women and house wives. mean score of
mental health for 40 working women was 68.25 & SD was 9.25
similarly mental health mean for 40 house wives was 70.50 & SD
was 10.50 and difference between their t value was 2.35 and was
significant at 0.05 level. Therefore the results reveal that mental
health is better for housewives than for working women.
Problem
“A comparative study of mental health of working women and house
wives”.
Objectives of the study
● To assess the mental health of working women.
wives. The age of the subjects ranges from 25 to 40 years with the
mean age of 34.3 for working and 28.5 for non working women.
Permission was taken from principals of schools and colleges and
also from heads of the families for data collection. The purposive or
judgmental sampling method was used.
Instrument
The Mental Health Scale (MHQ) constructed and standardized by
Dr. Kamlesh Sharma, Dr. B.R.A. Research institute Indore was used
to assess the Mental health level of subjects. The test comprises of
60 items and is framed in the form of positive and negative
statements.
There are 60 statements in the scale. Every statement has three
alternative responses-“yes”, “Indefinite”, and “No”. the subject has
to choose only one alternative response. The scheme of scoring it is
as on positive statements 2 marks for “yes”, 1 marks for “indefinite”,
and 0 marks for “no”, and for negative statements adopt just reverse
marking 2 marks for “no”, 1 marks for “indefinite”, and 0 marks for
“yes”.
Statements
Positive 1 2 6 10 11 14 15 17 19 21
23 26 28 29 30 32 35 38 39 42
43 44 46 48 50 53 55 58 59 60 =30
Negative 3 4 5 7 8 9 12 13 16 18
20 22 24 25 27 31 33 34 36 37
40 41 45 47 49 51 52 54 56 57=30
Procedure
All 100 subjects were given the printed copy of the scale that was
enlarged in size so that subjects can read it comfortably. The
instructions were read aloud by the investigator and the subjects
were told to read it again by themselves. Data was collected on
employed and unemployed educated women and the subjects were
encouraged throughout the all the session. In the end subjects were
thanked for their cooperation after the completion of the test. The
answer sheets were scrutinized and the data obtained were systema-
tically scored using standard and appropriate scoring methods for
the scale and later subjected to statistical analysis. The interpretation
of raw scores was done on classification of Mental Health which was
categorized as Very good, Good, Moderate, Poor and Very poor.
Table 1: Showing the Raw score classification of Mental Health of
Working and Non- working women.
Classification of Mental Health Working women Non-Working women

● To assess the mental health of house wives. Very Good 6 12

● To compare the Mental health of working and house wives. Good 11 26
Moderate 28 10
Hypothesis of the study Poor 5 2
● There would be a no significant difference in the mental health Very Poor 6 0
level of working women and housewives. Table 2: Showing the Mean, Standard deviation and t test of Working
and non-working women.
Method
Employment status t df
Participants
Working (N = 50) Non-Working (N = 50)
The study was conducted on a sample of 100 educated women of
Baramulla district of J&K out of which 50 were working in the Mental 63.54 71.94 4.14* 98
education department as lecturers and teachers who were termed as health (9.54) (10.69)
working women and 50 were housewives who were termed as house * = p < .05, ** = p < .01. Standard Deviations appear in parentheses below means.
1400 MAQBOOL ET AL./ A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MENTAL HEALTH
Graph representing the Mean and Standard deviation of working
women and housewives.
Results
The above table reveals that the mean of the data collected for the
Mental Health of working women is 63.54 (Moderate) and for non-
working women is 71.94 (Moderate).The difference of means is 8.4.
The same figures were put to the standard deviation in the working
women S.D. is 9.54 and for non-working women S.D. is 10.69. When
the sum of figures were put to 't' test we get 4.14.
When the tabulated value of 't' at 0.01 and 0.05 level of
significance is compared with the calculated value, it was found that
calculated value 4.14 is greater than the tabulated value 2.63 & 1.99
at 0.01 & 0.05 respectively. Therefore the value is significant. Hence
we can say that the null hypothesis has been rejected.
Thus, it can be concluded that there is significant difference in the
Mental health level of working and non-working women. The
Mental health is higher among housewives in comparison to working
women.
Discussion
It is well recognized that women's social roles affect their mental
health, it is unclear whether the effects are beneficial or detrimental.
(McBride,1998) Traditionally, this research has been conducted
within two competing hypotheses: role strain theory proposes that
because each person has limited time and energy, women with
multiple roles often experience "role conflict," which results in
harmful effects on their mental and physical health. (Froberg et al,
1986)
In the present study it was hypothesized that there would be a
significant mean difference between mental health of working
women housewives. Table shows the mean for mental health level of
working and non-working women. The mean of working women was
63.54 and of non-working women it was 71.94 which clearly indicate
the mean difference between working and non-working women. The
results clearly indicated that mental health mean scores were higher
among housewives in comparison to working women.
It was also hypothesized that there would be no significant
difference in the mental health level of working women and
housewives. Table shows the mean, standard deviation (S.D), degree
of freedom and 't' stat for working and non-working women. The
mean for working women was 63.54, standard deviation = 9.5473
and df=98. While as mean for non-working women was
71.94.standard deviation (S.D) =10.6931 and df=98. The 't' value =
View publication stats
4.14347 which was greater than the tabulated value of 2.62 & 1.99 at
0.01 & 0.05 level of significance. Hence, here null hypothesis was
rejected. Which indicated that Mental health level is higher among
non-working women in comparison to working women.
A similar study was conducted by Rout and Cooper (1997) and the
results were that there were significant difference in mental health
among working and non-working woman results indicate that the
non-working women have better mental health as compared
working women.
The study was conducted by Khodidas (2013), “Comparative
Study of Mental Health Among Working women on and House
Wives”, Department of Psychology Saurashtra University Rajkot
.The aim of the study was to find out the mental health among
working women and housewives. so total number of 40 working
women and 40 housewives were randomly selected from Surendra
nagar district. for the purpose of data collection mental health
analysis questionnaire developed by Badami and Badami was used
to measure the mental health level among working women and
housewives. “t” test was used for the statistical analysis of the data.
Difference between the mental health level among working women
and housewives was significant at 0.05 level. So the null hypothesis
was rejected and result shows that the mental health is better of
housewives than the working women.
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