Womenʹs work and health in Iran: a comparison of working and non-working mothers

This paper analyses research on the impact of work on mothers’ health in Tehran (Iran) within a role analytic framework. A survey was conducted of a representative sample of working and non-working mothers in Tehran in 1998 (N=1065, 710 working mothers, and 355 non-working mothers). Three main explanatory factors were examined (socio-demographic, work and work-related, and social-life context variables) alongside a range of mental and physical health outcome variables. Unlike in the West, where womenʹs paid work is generally associated with better health, statistically significant differences between working and non-working women were not found in Tehran. It is argued that this is a result of the counter-balance of the positive and negative factors associated with paid work, such as increased stress on one hand and self-esteem on the other. Iranian societyʹs particular socio-cultural climate has contributed to this finding, with its dominant gender-role ideology; the priority and extra weight placed on womenʹs traditional roles as wives and mothers, and the remarkably influential impact of husbands’ attitudes on womenʹs health.