Dressed to kill

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Dressed to kill

• Jan Peters
• Past President,
• Womens Engineering Society

Images www.elcosh.org
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Poor PPE
The limited availability of personal protective
equipment (PPE) for women is a critical workplace
health and safety issue.

• undermines efforts to protect worker health and
  safety
• barrier to equality of employment opportunity for
  women

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Slow progress

• 2007

• 2015

• Daphnet discussion
• Phone survey of major suppliers
• We know its an issue, its not a priority

• Problems persist as do images
• Major stock photo search first image of women
  PPE

2010 survey

• Bad, gloves, poor low tech fabric, male fit

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Pan network group

• Womens Engineering Society
• Women and Manual Trades
• Women in Property
• Arup
• Volunteer driven

Womans Hour
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(No Transcript)
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• Voice of women
• Outreach
• Networking
• Celebration

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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

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Who responded?

• 550 responses
• Only 25 associated with a womens network
• Spread of ages
• Spread of sectors

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Who buys PPE?
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Must you wear PPE?
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Sectors represented
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How comfortable is your PPE?
45 Uncomfortable
41 Comfortable
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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!

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Ever worn ill-fitting PPE?
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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

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To what extent does ill-fitting PPE hamper your
work?
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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.

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What style of safety boot?
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1918, 1945, 2010, 2015
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Lessons learned

• Accessing the supply routes
• Timing - recession
• Small organisations are vulnerable to the scale
  of the problem

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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

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Office_at_wes.org.uk

• Jan Peters

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Favourite shoes.....allsorts!

• Warm fluffy slippers
• My red patent high heel party shoes
• My walking boots, which carry me many miles and
  are very warm and comfortable!
• My work boots - comfy, warm in the winter, don't
  leak, make me that bit taller than normal!

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• http//www.elcosh.org/document/1198/d001110/Person
  alProtectiveEquipmentforWomen-Addressingthe
  Need.html?show_text118