Life satisfaction in Indian women: The role of employment status and emotional intelligence

Abstract

Life satisfaction is a core construct within the framework of women empowerment. The present study was designed 
to investigate the role of employment status and emotional intelligence (EI) in life satisfaction of Indian Women. It 
was expected that the delineation of the predictive role of these two variables for life satisfaction would be helpful 
for future intervention programs. The study adopted a 2 (employed versus unemployed ) x 2 (low EI versus high EI) 
factorial design where employed and unemployed women were separately divided into low EI and high EI 
subgroups on the basis of median split of EI scores. Apart from the test of EI, all the participants were individually 
administered the life satisfaction subscale of the standardised test of Utkal Happiness Scale. The analysis of 
variance supported both the hypotheses. Employed women exhibited higher life satisfaction than unemployed 
women. Women with high EI showed greater life satisfaction than women with low EI.