People were of the opinion that working women always tend to fall sick more often & also become victims of depression since they find managing both personal & professional life a bit difficult which also makes them more stressful as individuals.

However, recent research talks the opposite & says women who work outside home continuously or regularly during their prime years are much healthier compared to women who do not work outside the home.

Jennifer Caputo, a research scientist at the Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research, Germany, said that working women become less depressed & live longer as they age.

Caputo also said that though women worked in low status or male-dominated fields, as assessed in a paper published in the journal, they still lived healthier in biased conditions than other women who were only at home or were housewives.

The National Longitudinal Survey of mature women in the US carried out the survey by Caputo & her coauthors. The survey started in 1967 on 5,100 women in total between the age group of 30-44 & the research was carry forwarded till 2003 until they became 66-80 years of age.

In the first 20 years of working, women experienced less physical health problems & depression as they grew older over 16 years compared to women who did not work for pay or were housewives, the study revealed. Working women were also at lower risks of having died by more than 25% in 2012.

Simultaneously the study said that as working women grew older, they faced poor mental & physical health who faced discrimination at their jobs, or disliked working & felt not committed to work. But, in their later life they were said to be still healthier than the non-working women population.

The authors also said that considering different factors like hours of work, occupational class, income, did not show why working women lived a healthier & longer life compared to housewives & non-working women.

Caputo also added saying that though women face unfavourable working conditions & economic situations, still employment plays a major role in benefitting a women’s health overall. And, the authors were also able to show for the first time a long-term & positive relationship between health & midlife working for many following years & even after retirement.