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STRESSING OUT Angela Long looks at the health of Irish women in the workplace... and finds that there’s not much done, but there’s a lot more to do. Women can’t really complain that their health issues don’t get enough words written or air time in Ireland today... but a lot of the debate is little more than hot air, and change on the ground comes dropping slow. Spokesmen for male interest groups often complain about the emphasis put on breast cancer, for example, when prostrate cancer is an equivalent danger for males. Ovarian cancer, cervical diseases, bone thinning, all get universal coverage. But Breastcheck, the theoretically national screening project, is still confined largely to the east coast, with some Midland penetration into Roscommon and Offaly. For many women, and men, the workplace is now home away from home, where they spend more waking hours than anywhere else. The Health Service Executive says the average Irish employee spends 2,000 hours a year at work. So what particular health problems beset the working women of today — now that we make up a significant proportion of the working population? Life expectancy for an Irish woman is just over 80 years. Retirement for women is still generally 60. So there could be 20 years out of the office after you hang up your biro and Blackberry. To make them as good as possible, women need to look after their health earlier in their working lives. But there has been little dedicated research on the health of working women, which reflects that Ireland has some catching up to do in caring for those whose graft made the Celtic Tiger possible. Take mental health. Recent research for the National Economic and Social Forum showed that only one in five Irish employers has a mental health policy. Mental health problems affect about one in six employees, with the number for women (19%) higher than for men, at 16%. Compared to another EU country such as Denmark, Ireland has a long way to go. Denmark routinely tops surveys for contentment among the population. One of the responses to the most recent of these, done by Cambridge University, was that there is little pressure to work overtime in Denmark. People pack up at 4.30 or 5pm, and, perhaps, cycle home without a thought that they should be working any longer than contracted.
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