multiple roles and women’s quality of life:in iran (zabol)

objective: the aim of this paper is to investigate whether the combination of paid employment promotes or challenges the quality of life of married employed and unemployed women in iran. method: the samples consisted of 250 married employed women (175 professionals and 75 non-professionals) and 250 married unemployed. stratified convenience sampling technique was used for the selection of the sample. one demographic sheet and the persian version of world health organization -quality of life (irqol) were chosen for collection of data. spss was used for analyzing data. results: professional employed and unemployed women differed significantly on quality of life, physical health, and psychological health. professional employed and unemployed women did not differ significantly on two of the subscales of quality of life, social relationship and environment. professional employed women were found to be significantly higher on quality of life, physical health, psychological health, social relationship, and environment than non-professional women. non-professional employed women were found to be significantly lower on quality of life, social relationship, and environment than unemployed women. non- professional employed women did not differ significantly on physical health and psychological health than unemployed women. conclusions: the present study clearly evinces that employment status per se is not important. in other words, employment for women does not always ensure good quality of life. status and level of works is important factor for creation the positive consequences of work in women.