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Spillover between Work and Family

A Study of Blue-Collar Working Wives

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Stress Between Work and Family

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to explore the overlap and potential health consequences of work and family stress among women employed in blue-collar jobs. Women currently comprise more than 40% of the labor force in the United States. In 1980, 6 million women, or 14% of the total female labor force, were employed in blue-collar occupations. In spite of the size of this segment of the work force, little information exists on the nature and magnitude of work stress such women experience, the spillover between work and domestic stress, and the health and mental health consequences of these Stressors. These issues are particularly crucial in female employees, as Nieva (1985) noted, because “problems of integrating work and family lives still fall more heavily on women than men” (p. 175). They may be even more important among blue-collar women, whose jobs are often neither desirable, flexible, or lucrative, and who typically have total responsibility for home and child care.

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© 1990 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Bromet, E.J., Dew, M.A., Parkinson, D.K. (1990). Spillover between Work and Family. In: Eckenrode, J., Gore, S. (eds) Stress Between Work and Family. The Springer Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2097-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2097-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-2099-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-2097-3

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