Imagine you’re a construction worker at a job site with no washroom facilities. If you’re a male worker at that construction site, it may or may not be a big deal. Now imagine you’re a female construction worker at a job site with no washroom, and you’re on your menstrual cycle.

Helen McBride, a safety rep for the Canadian Auto Workers Union, recalls the story of a female construction worker who was laid off because “once a month for several days she was taking too much time off the job to go to the washroom.” There was no washroom at the construction site she worked at so the woman would drive to the nearest coffee shop to use the washroom.

“It becomes a difficult thing when you’re a woman in your menstrual cycle,” McBride says.

Jan Chappel, senior technical specialist at the Centre for Canadian Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), recalls a female worker at a big oil company who faced a somewhat similar difficulty. “I remember fit-testing for respirators and this lady wasn’t small, she was quite tall and she had a very slender chin. And there were little gaps [on the respirator].”

The regulation states that personal protective equipment (PPE), such as respirators, must properly fit the worker for maximum protection. The company tried every respirator manufacturer to find the right fit for the woman’s face so she could be properly protected at work, but to no avail. 

These are just some of the many workplace challenges women face as they enter the realm of what once were male-dominated occupations. According to Statistics Canada, the increasing participation of women in the workforce has been one of the major social trends in the country over the last 50 years. More women are now entering non-traditional occupations, such as construction and manufacturing. As a consequence, health and safety issues that highlight physical and biological gender differences are cropping up in the workplace.

McBride and Chappel were part of an expert panel at a roundtable event moderated by Canadian Occupational Safety entitled, Redefining Women’s Health & Safety in High-Performance Industry. They were joined by Elizabeth Mills, president and CEO of the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS); Bonnie Hinks, director of health and safety at Loblaw Properties, Ltd.; Jody Young, associate director, OHS branch of the Ontario Ministry of Labour; and Roxanne Bond from the United Steelworkers Union.

Changing demographics
The panelists agree that gender-sensitivity in the workplace is increasingly being discussed today, but a lot more needs to be done to actually translate the discussion into meaningful actions.

“As a leader of an organization — whether small or large — you need to reflect on the people you need to protect and inform, and ensure their rights and responsibilities are being protected,” says WSPS’s Elizabeth Mills.

Half of that battle is already won in that employers and health and safety professionals today have knowledge of the hazards in the workplace and how to mitigate them. The other half of that challenge is knowing how and whether these hazards affect female workers differently than males.

In some places, these conversations are happening. As the person in charge of health and safety for Loblaws’ construction operations, Hinks says a focus group for women has provided a venue for the company to identify these issues.

“We’re trying to assist our women in those professions that were previously dominated by men. The conversations are happening and it’s being addressed. As long as the issues are being brought forward, it should be taken care of and should be addressed.”

Identifying the issues is really the first step in addressing gender-sensitivity challenges. In workplaces where there’s union representation, the issues are more easily identified and put forth to management.

With members of the United Steelworkers Union, for instance, some of the most pressing issues for women in the trades are the lack of washrooms and change rooms, says USW’s Roxanne Bond.

“If they’re not already there, we have a challenge getting the employer to put in new ones because of the cost and necessity of changing the layout of the work area,” says Bond.

It becomes even more challenging when the job involves hazardous materials, she adds. “Some positions require you to work with a lot of chemicals. If a maintenance worker is female and working in a high-chemical area, she might not have an area to go after to take a shower or discard her soiled clothes.”