Employment, retirement, and morale among older women.

This study constitutes an effort to apply to females the role-theoretical orientation to work and retirement in old age which has often been applied to men. Cross-sectional data from a national probability sample of 2,398 women age 65 and over are used to test the hypothesis that older working women have better morale than those who do not work. With the exception of women with annual incomes in excess of +5,000, the findings show small but statistically significant differences both between older working women (who had the best morale) and retirees, and between retirees and women classified as never having worked (who evidenced the lowest moral). Satistically significant differences remained between these groups after simultaneously isolating the effects of age, income, and health, lending tentative support to the hypothesis and suggesting that work may indeed have a salutary thought limited psychological influence among women in the post-65 years.