Dressed to kill

Jan Peters
Past President,
Womens Engineering Society
Images: www.elcosh.org
 Poor PPE

undermines efforts to The limited availability

protect worker health and
safety
barrier to equality of
employment opportunity
for women
of personal protective
equipment (PPE) for
women is a critical
workplace health and
safety issue.
 Slow progress

2007 2015
Daphnet discussion Problems persist as do
Phone survey of major images
suppliers Major stock photo search:
We know its an issue, its first image of women & PPE
not a priority
2010 survey
Bad, gloves, poor low tech
fabric, male fit
 Pan network group

Womens Engineering Society

Women and Manual Trades
Women in Property
Arup

Womans
Volunteer driven Hour
 Voice of women
Outreach
Networking
Celebration
 Purpose of the survey

Is there a real issue with PPE for women?

What type of PPE is most problematic?
What could be improved?
Market research for safety boots
 Who responded?

550 responses
Only 25% associated
with a womens
network
Spread of ages
Spread of sectors
Who buys PPE?
Must you wear PPE?
How comfortable is your PPE?

45% Uncomfortable

41% Comfortable
 A few quotes.

Shaped for men. Pops open in places. Arms

and legs too long
Safety shoes in the right size is very difficult
Too big, too heavy
Shoes and vest fit OK but the winter jacket is
huge
It doesn't tend to fit in the right places!
Ever worn ill-fitting PPE?
 Some more quotes

Overalls fit OK but getting safety shoes in the right size is

very difficult. Either womens are too narrow (and look
awful) or the equivalent mens are too big and dont fit
properly.
Shoes are bought to fit me, lab coat is the right size,
sleeves a bit long but not a problem safety specs are
prescription and so ordered specially
Gloves in particular are too big and make it difficult to
handle stuff - also they fall off easily
To what extent does ill-fitting PPE
hamper your work?
 Even more quotes

Big clothes can be a safety hazard

Oversized gloves make it difficult to work safely or
accurately
Boots not fitting correctly caused me to stumble on site
Jackets too big, sleeves too long.it reaches almost
down to my knees so hard to walk up and down banks
Found when wearing boiler suits I have had to wear a
beltbody length is generally too long, so the crotch
ends up around my knees affecting the way I walk.
What style of safety boot?
1918, 1945, 2010, 2015
 Lessons learned

Accessing the supply routes

Timing - recession
Small organisations are vulnerable to the scale
of the problem
 Policy Agenda

Review PPE standards for gender inclusion

New robust study and data, pan European
Unions, governments, employers and
womens networks must coalesce on the issue
Jan Peters

OFFICE@WES.ORG.UK