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Class, paid employment and family roles: Making sense of structural disadvantage, gender and health status

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  • Arber, Sara

Abstract

The British tradition of analyzing differences in health has been dominated by class, with women belatedly entering this debate. The American tradition has been dominated by role analysis, with women's health considered primarily in terms of their marital, parental and employment roles, with recent research coming to contradictory conclusions. Research in both traditions has reached an impasse. This paper uses a sample of over 25,000 men and women from the 1985 and 1986 British General Household Survey to show how both traditions need to be reformulated and integrated. The ways in which family roles are associated with women's health status is determined by material circumstances, but the material circumstances cannot be captured by occupational class alone. Participation in the labour market and consumption divisions, in the form of housing tenure, are crucial additional indicators of structural disadvantage. Standardised limiting long-standing illness ratios and multivariate logit analysis confirm that occupational class and paid employment are the most important attributes associated with health status for women and men. Family roles are important for women; women without children and previously married women have particularly poor health status especially those not in paid employment and living in local authority housing.

Suggested Citation

  • Arber, Sara, 1991. "Class, paid employment and family roles: Making sense of structural disadvantage, gender and health status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 425-436, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:32:y:1991:i:4:p:425-436
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    Cited by:

    1. Carol Emslie & Kate Hunt & Sally Macintyre, 1999. "`Gender' or `Job' Differences? Working Conditions amongst Men and Women in White-Collar Occupations," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 13(4), pages 711-729, December.
    2. Chun, Heeran & Khang, Young-Ho & Kim, Il-Ho & Cho, Sung-Il, 2008. "Explaining gender differences in ill-health in South Korea: The roles of socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 988-1001, September.
    3. P. Jenkins, Stephen & Sacker, Amanda & P. Taylor, Mark, 2011. "Financial capability, income and psychological wellbeing," ISER Working Paper Series 2011-18, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. P. Taylor, Mark & J. Pevalin, David & Todd, Jennifer, 2006. "The psychological costs of unsustainable housing commitments," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-08, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Fritzell, Sara & Ringbäck Weitoft, Gunilla & Fritzell, Johan & Burström, Bo, 2007. "From macro to micro: The health of Swedish lone mothers during changing economic and social circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 2474-2488, December.
    6. Karsten Marshall Elseth Rieck & Kjetil Telle, 2012. "Sick leave before, during and after pregnancy," Discussion Papers 690, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    7. Mehfooz Ahmad & Aqeel Khan, 2018. "Examining Mental Health Of Educated Unemployed," Education, Sustainability & Society (ESS), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 1(2), pages 1-4, August.
    8. Ali, Shabbir & Nadeem, Ahmed, 2021. "The Impact of Socio-emotional competencies, Socio-economic factors, and the Employability process on Employment Status," MPRA Paper 108942, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Rieck, Karsten Marshall Elseth, 2012. "Does Child Care Affect Parents’ Sickness Absence? Evidence From A Norwegian Paternity Leave Reform," Working Papers in Economics 14/12, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    10. Sperlich, Stefanie & Geyer, Siegfried, 2015. "The mediating effect of effort-reward imbalance in household and family work on the relationship between education and women's health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 58-65.
    11. Richardson, Lindsey & Wood, Evan & Kerr, Thomas, 2013. "The impact of social, structural and physical environmental factors on transitions into employment among people who inject drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 126-133.
    12. Taylor, Mark P. & Jenkins, Stephen P. & Sacker, Amanda, 2011. "Financial capability and psychological health," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 710-723.

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