Health problems of women in software industry

In India, Women constitute about 21 percent of the total software work force, which is higher than their participation in the national economy. Owing to the target oriented time schedules, the effort to be put in by the software professionals, especially women in highly strenuous. This new work culture is paving way to a new set of health problems, along with emotional and social problems. Technopark at Trivandrum housing 104 IT and ITES companies, providing employment to more than 12,500 software professionals, was selected as the locale for the study. One hundred and fifty software professionals and 50 non software professionals were taken as the sample for study. The independent variables studied were socio economic and personal characteristics, life style pattern and dietary particulars. The dependant variables studied were morbidity pattern, anthropometric measurements, reproductive health and stress level. Most of the Socio economic, personal characteristics life style patterns and dietary profile were comparable However Occupational diseases like joint pains, vision problems, back pain, muscular pain and spondilitis were higher for software professionals. High level of stress was observed among software professionals than non software professionals.