Nowack

BJG: Thank you for your time and all this great information, Dr. Nowack.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: As a researcher, I have been asking one basic question for over 20 years: "Who are the most hardy and resilient in the face of work and life stress?"

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: The recession has been an equal opportunity stressor for both men and women, although financial strains for women seem to have increased relative to their male counterparts.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

So I contacted Dr. Ken Nowack, who knows a thing or two about women.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

BJG: Thank you for your time and all this great information, Dr. Nowack.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: Let me share with you some current findings that we haven't yet published about Type A women as well as men.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: As a researcher, I have been asking one basic question for over 20 years: "Who are the most hardy and resilient in the face of work and life stress?"

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: The recession has been an equal opportunity stressor for both men and women, although financial strains for women seem to have increased relative to their male counterparts.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: The concept of "Type A behavior" has been around since the 1950s when two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, first noticed that patients who were wearing out their waiting room furniture seemed to express a behavioral pattern of being impatient, hard driving, competitive and quick to anger.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011

Nowack: Women are naturally primed to be more emotionally expressive and nurturing under stress due to the release of the pro-social hormone oxytocin, so reaching out to network and avoid isolation comes pretty naturally to most working women.

BJ Gallagher: America's Working Women: Stress, Health and Well-Being BJ Gallagher 2011