An initial analysis of a survey done in 2012 in Germany has revealed a "gender gap" in health and safety at work. Women more often than men suffer a wide range of work-related complaints.
They report a higher incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), vision problems, dizziness, headache, fatigue, emotional stress, sleep disorders, physical and psychological exhaustion, as well as coughs, skin and eye irritation and cardiac disorders.
Overall, women rate their health at work worse than men and more consistently seek medical treatment than men when work-related health problems arise.
In all, 20,036 workers aged 15 and over working at least 10 hours a week were surveyed.
The survey was conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA).
It follows work done in 2011 by Daniela Tieves' whose report builds on a body of work done by the European Trade Union Institute on the link between the struggle for equality and health at work. It draws on information gleaned through a network of contacts in a selected group of EU countries.
It has the virtue of examining a set of national and European data on the impact of work on health through the filter of a gender perspective, highlighting the scale of discrimination in this area and offering useful insights both for policy makers and research.
Here in the UK research published by the TUC in 1999 concluded women developed different occupational health problems to men because of the types of job they do, findings subsequently confirmed in international research.
Trade Union Unite warned last year that health and safety issues affecting women are still either ignored, under-researched or unrecognised, problems that it said must be addressed by unions.
Source: ETUI / Risks
The BIBB research report can be downloaded here, although it is only available in the German language.
Daniela Tieve’s report – Women and Occupational Diseases In The European Union, is available to download from the E-Library Database using search category ‘Women at Work’
