An Empirical Study on Stress Levels among Working Women in the Export Oriented Units of Karur District

With the advent of globalisation, there has been increasing opportunities for women to engage themselves in the productive activity. However, globalisation has also resulted in the increased competition among the firms within and outside the country. This has necessacitated the continuous monitoring and improving the qualtiy of the produce to meet the global standards. This in turn has results in the continuous pressure on the part of the workers resulting in the increase the level of stress in the work place. Moreover, the unique feature of the female is that in the Indian social set up, the women folks have the primary responsibility of household maintenance. Hence, the multiple problems of working women like, the problem like childcare, low pay, sexual harassment in the work place, problems pregnant women, psychological problems, discrimination practiced in the work place etc. are related to psychological stressors for the working women. This in turn is said to affect the health status. Hence, an understanding of the level of stress among the working women essential and in the present paper is attempted to study the level of stress of the women working in the export oriented units operating in the district of Karur.