Recently, my husband and I had a conversation about women having a career and then having to come home to another job of cooking/cleaning/raising children versus women who are stay at home. In the past generations, mostly with two parent household families before the 1980s, women usually stayed at home while the men worked and were the providers of the family. For women who are stay at home, it is a bigger job taking care of the home and/or the kids but if this was the only job a woman had, do you think there would be less exhaustion and health problems in relation to most women now who have a career and then come home to more work?
Having a lot of stress is a cause for many medical conditions; this is not the case for all conditions someone faces but heart disease and hypertension (high blood pressure) have affected women at earlier ages now considering the increased access we have to healthcare in more recent times; do you think these changes in lifestyle over the last few decades have affected women’s health? For example, if both my significant other and I have a job do we share home duties or no? If I go to sleep at 11:30 pm and wake up at 4 am to begin the day and get the kids together, did I get the sleep I need to be productive for the day with reduced stress? If I’m a single parent working 9 to 5, there is so little time left in the day to cook, do homework, have some family fun, and have self-care time?
During the earlier times of women moving up in their careers while raising families, the cost of living and childcare was far less and there was still more community partnership in raising children but now all of these are almost nonexistent, and families/women must go at it alone. For myself, as a woman without children who only balances a career and a new marriage I enjoy reading, listening to music, sewing, doing jigsaw puzzles, and doing yoga among other things, but I have no idea how I would balance it all if I had children right now even though I know as women we are strong and can work through our obstacles. So, my question for those of you who work the double shift whether with children and/or a spouse, what are some ways you manage your stress and keep your health in check? Share with us! (Below is two articles on the topic.)
Article #1: Health Disparities Among African Americans
Article #2: Health Equity Among Black Women in the United States