INTRODUCTION: After independence, women in India have come a long way. From just being a skilled homemaker, women today have acquired skills and capabilities of not just being a homemaker but being at par with the male counterparts. This the new generation of women, wants to pursue their dream career. Conicts arises with the working mother as one has to full the demand at work followed by demands of family including children, husband, in-laws, etc. In today's scenario the husband and wife both work for creating a balance with their work life as well as at home with their children. But it is difcult for women as she has to play multiple roles of a cook, a tutor, a nurse, a helper, as well as cater to the demands of ofce work. This can leave a working woman stressed and anxious, (1)especially if the family is not supportive. A housewife's main duties include managing the family, educating and taking care of her children, cooking food, buying goods, cleaning and maintaining the home, washing and sewing clothes for the family and so on, the list is endless. It is ironical that a woman employed within the home is referred to as a housewife, and outside the home, as a working woman. Whereas, in both the situations, woman is working but how the woman is referred to, is based on the working place. The duty of the housewife is to take care of the day-to-day chores within the house. A woman who earns salary, wages, or other income through employment, outside the home, is (2)termed as a working woman. First of all, one should recognize the true sources of stress, which is the main problem. Stress is quite common in todays life which may leads to many health problems as well, cognitive, emotional, physical and behavioural changes may occur. Hence, this study was conducted to compare the level of stress experienced by housewives and working women. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted among housewives and working-women in the urban area of Rohtak district, Haryana. Data was collected from 200 respondents, of which 100 respondents were housewives and 100 were working women, in a time span of 1month (1stOctober -1stNovember, 2018). General role stress scale (GRSS), which is a self- administered questionnaire with a respondent rate of 12 items on a 5-point scale was used to assess the stress level among respondents. The data was collected and entered in the MS- EXCEL spread sheet, coded appropriately and cleansed for any possible typing error. Results were expressed as Mean (SD) and then the data were subjected to systematic analysis using statistical independent t-test by application of SPSS-20 software as per study objective. RESULTS: 200 females with mean age= 28.96 (SD=4.47) years took part in the study. An independent-sample t-test was conducted to compare the GRSS stress score among housewives and working-women. There was a signicant difference in the levels of stress in housewives (Mean=29.08, SD=4.46) and working-women (Mean=32.98, SD=5.44); t=12.084, p=0.001. Out of all the study subjects only 15% were doing some efforts to decrease the levels of stress such as meditation, listening- music, exercising, keeping themselves busy in some or the other recreational activities (Table-2). Table1. Distribution of the study subjects according to different variables A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON STRESS LEVELS AMONG WORKING WOMEN AND HOUSEWIVES OF DISTRICT ROHTAK, HARYANA Original Research Paper Ginni Agrawal Junior Resident, Department of Community Medicine X 77GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS Community Medicine Introduction: A woman employed within the home is a housewife, and outside the home is a working woman, but in both situations the woman is working. Balancing work and family-life together is a major issue for women. Family issues as well as work issues has resulted in women dealing with an increasing amount of stress. Aim and objective: The objective of the study was to compare the level of stress experienced by housewives and working women in the district Rohtak, Haryana. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 housewives and 100 working women using General-role- stress-scale(GRSS), to assess the stress level among respondents. Results: Stress levels of working-women with mean 32.98(SD=5.44) and housewives with mean 29.08(SD=4.46) shows that working-women face more stress when compared to housewives, which was statistically signicant (p-value=0.001). Conclusion: In order to avoid stress from negatively impacting lives, one needs to increase knowledge about stress management techniques. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS : Stress housewives working-women Rohtak Piyush Jain* Junior Resident, Department of Forensic Medicine Pt.B.D. Sharma University Health Sciences, Rohtak*Corresponding Author Sarika Yadav Junior Resident, Department of Community Medicine Tarun Kumar Junior Resident, Department of Community Medicine VOLUME-8, ISSUE-9, SEPTEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra Age group Housewives (N=100) Working women (N=100) Total (N=200) Frequency (%) Frequency (%) Frequency (%) 1. 20-25 years 0 36 (36) 36 (18) 2. 26-30 years 72 (72) 31 (31) 103 (51.5) 3. 31-35 years 21 (21) 26 (26) 47 (23.5) 4. >36 years 7 (7) 7 (7) 14 (7) Total 100 (100) 100 (100) 200 (100) Education status 1. Post-graduate 0 0 0 2. Graduate /Diploma 22 (22) 16 (16) 38 (19) 3. 12th pass 33 (33) 43 (43) 76 (38) 4. 10th pass 7 (7) 27 (27) 34 (17) 5. 8th pass 25 (25) 11 (11) 36 (18) 78 X GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS (Figures in the parenthesis indicate percentage) Table-2. Distribution of the study subjects according to the sources of stress (Figures in the parenthesis indicate percentage) DISCUSSION: In the current study it was exhibited that working-women feel more stressed-out as compared to the housewives. Similar (1)results were found in the studies by Tripathi et al , Harilal et (2) (3) (4) (5)al , Mamatha et al , Shukla et al . In a study by Kumar et al , concurrent conclusion was derived that working-women are suffering from moderate-to-high levels of stress. Housewives are also suffering from the stress although less in comparison to the working-women. Women should try to modify the stressful situation, and nd some time to move away for relaxation. Stress being a part of human life; sometimes motivate us and helps us to become more productive. But too much stress is harmful which creates anxiety, tension, fatigue/burnout. Complete healthy diet habits also help in keeping the stress levels controlled. Activities such as walking, dancing, swimming, listening music, meditation, spending leisure time with family/ friends, painting, cooking or other recreational activities, etc may act as stress busters. Changing the work environment also relives work stress at times. Making the environment less competitive and creating positive vibes by reducing personal conicts also decrease some amounts of stress. CONCLUSION: The study showed the stress levels among working women and housewives concluding that stress-levels are high for working-women when compared with housewives. In order to avoid negative effects of stress, one need to increase knowledge about stress and also use stress management techniques. REFERENCES: 1. Tripathi P, Bhattacharjee S. A study on psychological stress of working women. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research [Internet]. 2012[cited 2019 Sep06];2(2):434-45. Available from: https://www.researc hgate.net/publication/ 317558474_A_ study_on_psychological_ stress_of_working_women 2. Harilal A, Santosh VA. A comparative study on stress levels among working women and housewives with reference to the state of Kerala. NMIMS Journal of Economics and Public Health Pol icy [ Internet] . 2017[ci ted 2019Sep06];2(1):29-35. Available from: https://epp-journal.nmims.edu/wp- content/uploads/2017/april/a-comparative-study-on-stress-levels-among- working-women-and-housewives-with-reference-to-the-state-of-kerala- harilal-a-santhosh-v-a.pdf 3. Mamatha R. A study on stress among working women in India. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Advanced Research Trends [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2019 Sep07];4(1):137-42. Available from: https://ijmart.s3. amazonaws. com/2017janIssues/volume4-issue1%282%29/21.pdf 4. Shukla S, Jaiswal M, Agrahari K, Shingh A. A study on stress level among working and nonworking women. International Journal of Home Science [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2019Sep07];3(1):349-57. Available from: http:// www.homesciencejournal.com/archives/2017/vol3issue1/PartI/3-1-109.pdf 5. Kumar V, Purushothama M. A study on stress among working women in service sector with special reference to Ramanagara district,Bangalore. Elk Asia Pacic Journal of Finance and Risk Management [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2019Sep07];9(3)2325-49. Available from: https://www.elkjournals.com/ MasterAdmin/UploadFolder/A%20STUDY%20ON%20STRESS%20AMONG %20WORKING%20WOMEN%20IN%20SER VICE%20SECTOR/A%20STUDY %20ON%20STRESS%20AMONG%20WORKING%20WOMEN%20IN%20SE RVICE%20SECTOR.pdf. VOLUME-8, ISSUE-9, SEPTEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra S.no. Respondents External/ outside/ workplace stress (%) Internal/ within family Stress (%) Both (%) Other sources (%) Total 1. Housewives 17 (17) 27 (27) 56 (56) 0 100 (100) 2. Working- women 28 (28) 43 (43) 20 (20) 9 (9) 100 (100) Total 45 (22.5) 70 (35) 76 (38) 9 (4.5) 200 (100) 6. 5th pass 13 (13) 3 (3) 16 (8) 7. Illiterate 0 0 0 Total 100 (100) 100 (100) 200 (100) Employment status of Husband 1. Government 21 (21) 33 (33) 54 (27) 2. Private 39 (39) 15 (15) 54 (27) 3. Self-employed 36 (36) 52 (52) 88 (44) 4. Unemployed 4 (4) 0 4 (2) Total 100 (100) 100 (100) 200 (100) Socio-economic Class 1. Upper class 0 20 (20) 20 (10) 2. Upper middle 5 (5) 73 (73) 78 (39) 3. Lower middle 68 (68) 7 (7) 75 (37.5) 4. Upper lower 27 (27) 0 27 (13.5) 5. Lower 0 0 0 Total 100 (100) 100 (100) 200 (100) Type of Family 1. Nuclear family 85 (85) 42 (42) 127 (63.5) 2. Joint family 15 (15) 58 (58) 73 (36.5) Total 100 (100) 100 (100) 200 (100) Having Children 1. Yes 92 (92) 78 (78) 170 (85) 2. No 8 (8) 22 (22) 30 (15) Total 100 (100) 100 (100) 200 (100) Efforts done to prevent stress (%) 1. Yes 5 (5) 95 (95) 100 (100) 2. No 24 (24) 76 (76) 100 (100) Total 29 (14.5) 171 (85.5) 200 (100)