Stress of 17-hour working day

Press, 7 September 1981, Page 14

Stress of 17-hour working day

NZPA London Housewives risk severe mental stress when they take up outside jobs, according to a report by Britain’s Employment Department. “These women are caught in a constant and unremitting round of activity throughout their working hours,” says the report on production-line workers. “Their day begins early, about 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., and finishes late — about 10 p.m. “They have little time for rest or relaxation, leaving them continuously tired and often emotionally exhausted.” The report continues: “Most of the women interviewed received little or no assistance with housework from their husbands or older children. “In one factory, all the women reported that when not at work, the bulk of their time was taken up with housework, cooking, and childcare.” The women had one main reason for going out to work — money.

The report says: “The women studied were also responsible for the family budget and under financial pressure to make ends meet. “They are regular visitors to the factory nurse, who found major symptoms of stress, including- child-beat-ing, dependence on sedatives, and screaming tantrums.” One mother-of-three said: “Some nights I sit at home and I could cry all night... I just tell myself not to be so damn silly.” In many families, the working mothers had no one to look after the children in cases of illness or school holidays. The universal complaint among the women was the “emotional stress” caused by worry about the welfare of children during the day. Women also complained of being expected to act as mother, lover, worker and household accountant — with no help from their husbands. They seemed to accept this as their lot — “in comparison with the man of the household’s freedom from such tasks.”