WOMEN PREPARING FOR TRADITIONALLY MALE PROFESSIONS - PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS ASSOCIATED WITH WORK AND HOME STRESS

Gender differences in well-being often are attributed to differential exposure of women and men to stressors, either from different distribu tion of the genders across roles or fi om different stressors within r oles. An alternative hypothesis is that men and women differ in their vulnerability, although not necessarily in their exposure, to stressor s. The relevant research often has confounded gender with work roles. Therefore, women and men preparing for the same traditionally male pro fessions, as well as another group of women preparing for traditionall y female professions, were included as participants in the current stu dy (n = 397, almost all white). Even with exposure to stressors contro lled statistically, nontraditional women were more susceptible than me n with the same professional goals to several physical and psychologic al outcomes. These gender differences were nor accounted for by differ ential vulnerability to the stressors measured in this study. However chronic job tension and home (non-work) life events were stronger pred ictors of certain symptoms for these women preparing for traditionally male professions than for women preparing for traditionally female pr ofessions. Thus, both gender and career track differences were demonst rated, in susceptibility to symptoms developed and in vulnerability to stressors, respectively.