In the Jan/Feb edition of Safeguard we pose three questions based on stories in the magazine. One of them is this:
Joshua Wright and Sue MacEwan advocate designing toilet facilities on construction sites to cater for all genders. What aspects of your own working environment seem designed in a way which compromises women’s health, safety or wellbeing?
Feel free to respond here on the Forum, or privately here via a Survey Monkey form.
An edited selection of responses will be published in the March/April edition, but with no names attached. One randomly selected person will receive a prize, namely a copy of the book Sacrificing Safety – Lessons for Chief Executives, by Andrew Hopkins.
The design of PPE, we are still struggling to get things to fit women properly. That includes everything from face masks to body armour. Boots designed for men are wider than for women so we end up with flappy feet inside boots and blisters. There is a great book by Caroline Criado Perez with the title Invisible Women about how in all sorts of areas (medicine, crash testing, etc etc.) we do not include women in the data (I dont get commission!). As a starting point does everyone have a diverse safety committee?
We've put work into getting PPE that fits our female staff but finding harnesses for working at heights that both fit our female workers and meet the safety requirements of our industry has been difficult.
We don't design workplaces that are supportive of women who are going through the menopause. More and more I see workplaces that are shifting to an open working environment, which forces women who may be experiencing memory loss, brain fog, low self - esteem, heightened anxiety and hot flushes, to do so out in the open. Without layered workplaces, there is no quiet spaces for women to retreat to, where they can have autonomy over their environment. Given that almost 50% of the global workforce are women, organisations need to shift to a proactive and supportive approach to menopause. This begins with a menopause policy that is more than just a piece of paper. Menopause friendly leave, toilets that are fully contained and not cubicle dividers, uniforms that work with the physiological changes a woman's body goes through, and layered workspaces are just some of the practical, supportive ways organisations can help support and retain women experiencing menopause.
The irony is that there are multiple options for recreational climbing harness for women so it's proof that there just isn't the desire for companies to do it.
The manufacturing companies are multinational, so international numbers are what count. That said, I've worn a woman's harness before, and the main problem area I found was the waist strap, which a lot of industrial harnesses don't seem to have.
Menopause friendly leave, toilets that are fully contained and not cubicle dividers, — Kimberley Schofield
A lot of employees would prefer some extra privacy for their ablutions, rather than a design that makes it easier for the cleaner, or cheaper to build etc etc. Men with prostate problems, folk doing chemo, particularly those with bowel cancer.