Gender and Occupational Safety and Health (GOSH) Discussion Board

As you'll know surveys have shown that the 4 big health problems affecting working women are stress, manual handling, musculoskeletal problems and violence at work. Similar patterns have been found in overseas studies. The TUC mixed gender study in 1998 showed that a worryingly high proportion of men also suffered from stress, but women were even more likely to. Women appear from the evidence to be somewhat more likely to develop musculoskeletal problems at work.

Not shown in the survey was that women of working age also have the highest rates of depression, in the UK and in other similar nations. This is especially true for those on low incomes and with young children. So stress, depression and RSI, all them preventable, seem a good place to focus in making workplaces healthier for women.

A lot of men would benefit too. That's because much occupational health and safety training is still based upon dangers facing men working in industries with machinery and hazardous chemicals (and good progress has been made in reducing fatalities and injuries there), not on the hazards facing women and men working in more modern workplaces and with computers.

What we have noticed is that our current discussions on women's health issues get stuck because of an assumption that they come only from their double burden of paid and unpaid work. Certainly the double burden is a problem, especially for mothers with young children. But what can unions do about that? Not a lot, except to lobby government for extensions to paid parental leave and more subsidies for quality child care, increases in family allowances plus increases in the minimum wage, all of which would be beneficial to the health of women workers and their families.

But we need to also look at specific issues that can be identified and addressed by unions in workplaces, for example maybe included in contract negotiations.

Some of these issues could include:

*Unsuitable hours of work.

Employers often assume that mothers only want part time work, when in fact they need the income only full time work brings. Others are struggling with excessive hours because their work place culture is not sympathetic to women (or men) with family commitments. Stronger curbs on excessive hours might allow more women to manage full time employment.

*Job insecurity is known to be a health issue and is more commonly experienced by women than men. Casualisation of the workforce affects the conditions and security of all workers, and could be a higher priority.

*Women are more likely than men to have high levels of demand in their work, and no control over the volume or speed of the work coming in. This is known to lead to health problems. Jobs that involve low levels of autonomy and freedom of movement are bad for health.

*Working in isolation , for example at a computer, increases the risks from other workplace health hazards. Not being able to take breaks at the same time as other employees increases the isolation.

*Poor quality social interactions are also damaging. Working with constant interruptions is unhealthy. So is being obliged to spend entire shifts dealing with potentially abusive or complaining customers (for example in customer service).

Obviously the precise health risks affecting women workers vary hugely from job to job. But there are also overall patterns, especially with stress. Even in the kinds of jobs we think of as being safe, for example, women working as junior doctors and university tutors carry dangerously high levels of stress and resentment about the often unfair and discriminatory treatment they receive.

To deal with this we need to start by getting good information from union reps in a wide range of occupations.

So some questions come to mind.

*What causes these common health and safety problems?

*Which causes can be addressed by trade unions?

*How?

Join in the discussion

Briefing document (700 words) issued 20 Feb 2006