Introduction: Major economic and social changes occurred over the last 50 years, such as the increased participation of women in the labour market and the development of non-standard forms of employment. These trends question the importance of work/employment conditions in the shaping of social inequalities in health over the life course. We thus hypothesize that (1) precarious occupational trajectories may contribute to ill health in adulthood, and that (2) they may affect genders differently. Methods We used the French SIP (Santé Itinéraire Professionnel) national survey that collected information on occupational career and major health events of people aged 40–74 in 2006. We described poor employment conditions in terms of job instability, career discontinuity, qualification trends and versatility. We then applied multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical ascending classification to identify patterns reflecting the accumulation of precarious employment conditions over job histories. Finally, we quantified the association between the type of occupational trajectory and self-reported health (Mini European Health Module) through multivariate logistic regression. Results We included more than 9500 participants of working-age or < 5 -years retirees at the time of the survey. The classification showed that women were over-represented among most precarious trajectories. We also found that people with precarious trajectories more often reported less than good self-perceived health, currently experiencing longstanding illness or health problem, and activity limitation due to health problems. The trend of increasing ill health across work trajectories (stable/qualified/continuous trajectories serving as a reference) was similar among men and women, although adjusted ORs were slightly higher among women. Conclusion We bring evidence that women experienced more precarious employment trajectories in France over the last decades than did men, with similar health outcomes among men and women. We now seek to expand our gendered perspective by taking into account hazardous working conditions as a potential mediating pathway.