Social position, social roles and women's health in England: changing relationships 1984–1993

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between social roles, social position and health in English women using theoretically derived measures of social position. Data are taken from the Health and Lifestyle Survey, carried out between 1984–1985, and the Health Survey for England of 1993. First the paper asks whether health inequality in women is still evident when theoretically derived measures (the Erikson–Goldthorpe schema and the Cambridge scale) are used. It goes on to explore the extent to which different combinations of family roles and employment circumstances might affect social variations in health. Finally, the paper shows that health differences between women in different combinations of social roles were not the same in 1993 as in 1984 and examines some reasons why this change may have occurred.