How stress of a career is harming women's health

Women are losing their lead over men in life expectancy as they trade homemaking for careers.

Work stress – and related drinking and smoking – are taking an increasing toll on their health, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In 1963 men were twice as likely to die early as women. Last year however the increased risk fell to one and a half times and the life expectancy gap has fallen from six years to fewer than four.

Mortality rates among women have fallen among all age groups since 1963, as the nation lives longer

 

The Office for National Statistics said in improvements in the health of men has lead to a rise in male life expectancy which has increased at a greater rate than for women

The ONS study is the first official recognition that women who have abandoned the domestic lives of their grandmothers now face the same shorter lifespans of men.

‘Ministers want women to work long hours when they have children, but these figures…indicates there may be public health problems as a result,’ said Laura Perrins of the pressure group Mothers at Home Matter.

‘There is clearly now a health interest in providing transferable tax allowances that would make it possible for people to stay at home with young children.’

Higher premature death rates for women were most marked in the 55 to 69 age group, the paper found.

A helpful animation for the facts and figures on units of alcohol

‘Increases in women entering the labour force over the last 50 years are considered to have had an impact on stress, smoking and drinking, leading to changes in the health of females,’ said the ONS.

It said male health had improved with lower smoking and drinking rates and fewer dangerous jobs in industrial environments.

Two years ago ONS research found for the first time since the Victorian age that mortality rates were not improving among some groups of working women.

They cited the ‘intermediate’ group that includes saleswomen, counter clerks, clerical workers in the public sector and medical and dental technicians.

Women have always enjoyed greater life expectancy.

But in recent years, while overall life expectancy has been rising, the gap between the sexes has been closing. Life expectancy for a child born between 2011 and 2013 went up to 78.9 for a boy and 82.7 for a girl, leaving a gap between the sexes of 3.8 years.

Women's health has been adversely affected by growing numbers entering the labour market, and smoking and drinking, the ONS said

The move towards millions of women going out to work 'has had a negative impact on their health'

However in the early 1980s life expectancy at birth was 70.8 for a boy and 76.8 for a girl – a gap of six years. In 1963 life expectancy at birth was 67.9 for a boy and 73.9 for a girl. Since then there has been an increase of around 11 years for men and nearly nine years for women.

Women have been increasingly likely to adopt risky habits to the same level as men.

In the mid-1970s, half of all men smoked but only four in ten women. By 2011 overall numbers of smokers had dropped, but women smoked nearly as much as men – 19 per cent against 21 per cent.

Experiment shows lung capacities in smokers and non-smokers

State surveys also show that while levels of drinking are falling overall, they are falling at a slower rate for women than men. In 2011, 57 per cent of men were drinking at least once a week, against 54 per cent of women, with the gap halved over a period of just six years.

Smoking and drinking levels have risen with the advance of women into working lives, a revolution in the lives of millions which has also resulted in women marrying later in life, if at all. The average age at which a woman has a child is now over 30, and numbers of women having children in their 40s has risen fivefold since the 1970s.

Some analysts link higher stress levels in working women with the sharp rise in numbers who go to work while they have young families. Official figures this year showed the number of stay-at-home mothers has dropped to just over two million, down from three million 20 years ago.

Researcher and author Patricia Morgan said: ‘Men’s life expectancy has been increasing in the way that could be predicted, because of less going down coal mines or falling off scaffolding.

‘However government policies that have put pressure on women to work, whether they want to or not, may not have been entirely a good thing. We may be looking at the unintended consequences of the economic pressure on women to go out to work throughout their lives.’