The majority of working women report being in good health in a recent survey. However, nearly 60% of them are worried about their health, whether physical or moral.
- According to a survey by the Equality Laboratory conducted between April and May 2024, 85% of working women say they are in good health.
- Six in ten women say they have concerns about their mental or physical health.
- A third of working women surveyed have recently experienced a deterioration in their health.
Around 67% of women, aged 15 to 64, work in France. This figure rises to 74.5% for men of the same age according to INSEE. What is the health status of working women? The equality laboratory, an association which campaigns for professional equality between men and women, carried out a investigation to answer this question. 750 working women, over 25 years old, responded to the study. Nearly 60% say they are worried about their health.
A representative study of working women in France
“In a post-health crisis period, the Equality Laboratory wanted to carry out an inventory of the health of women at work.specifies Patrick Boccard and Marine Darnault, co-pilots of the study. To ensure its representativeness, the authors used the quota method: it is based on the creation of different samples, to obtain a total similar to the population. All participants responded to an online questionnaire, between April 24 and May 3, 2024.
Healthy women, worried about the future
If the vast majority of working women (85%) are in good health, six out of ten are worried about their physical or psychological health, 30% for both. “This concern seems to have its source in a very concrete reality: a third of working women (36%) have noticed a deterioration in their state of health in recent months, this is particularly the case for 41% of women between 35 and 49 years old. whose state of health has deteriorated recently”observe the authors of this survey in a press release.
Active women: what solutions to stay healthy?
According to those interviewed, the balance between professional and personal life has a strong impact on their health. A quarter of them believe that this is the element that influences them the most. One in five working women report having a poor quality of life at work. They explain that this is linked to the intensity of work, to remuneration or even to the quality of management. This unhappiness at work is more associated with the risk of deterioration in health. This can manifest itself in sleep disorders, which affect almost one in two active women, or even migraines, which affect a quarter of the women in this study. 26% of women surveyed have already suffered from depression or anxiety.
How to improve the health of working women?
A third of those surveyed would like the company to implement specific measures to improve their health. For example, they would like physical activity to be more encouraged and supported, in particular by the creation of dedicated spaces in the workplace. The women in this study also say that more awareness and psychological help are needed. “The results of the study (…) also demonstrate the emergence of awareness around necessary preventive actions, thus offering employers new possibilities for support, but also for retaining employees and agents.conclude Patrick Boccard and Marine Darnault, co-pilots of the study. In a convergent approach, prevention thus becomes a priority theme for the work collective.”
