Survey reveals 80% of women in ground engineering have issues with PPE

The survey of 130 women on the Bold as Brass LinkedIn group, a support network for women in construction, mining and quarrying, found that 80% (104) of respondents have been given ill-fitting PPE at work.

It also found that 32% (41) have felt unsafe because their PPE does not fit them correctly, while 28% (36) have been on sites where there is no PPE provision for women at all.

Some women even said they had been prevented from working because PPE in their size was not available, with 5% (6) selecting that option.

The findings coincide with this year’s International Women in Engineering Day, which is focused on the theme “make safety seen”.

Tarmac geotechnical manager Katherine Evans believes that providing adequate PPE for women in construction is as much about making women feel safe at work as it is about making them feel like they belong in the industry.

“PPE might just be the last bit of safety, but it’s the thing that’s going to stop so many people from actually entering the industry if it doesn’t fit,” said Evans who set up the Bold as Brass group.

After the group was formed PPE quickly emerged in conversations as one of the biggest issues that was “blocking” women from moving forward in their careers, she said.

Acording to Evans, the problem is that PPE is still designed to fit an average man’s body shape, while a lot of PPE that is marketed as unisex is also a man’s fit. Meanwhile, the range of sizes and options for women's PPE is limited.

Evan’s herself has experienced numerous problems with her PPE because of this, from trousers that are the wrong leg and waist length to gloves that are too big. In the past, she has been given men’s coats to wear that are too long in the arms and too tight across the chest.

“I’m a size 6 hand. I put on a size 10 when I went to a site recently because that’s all they had, and it just fell off,” she said.

Because of these issues, many women working in construction and ground engineering must buy their own PPE and get reimbursed for it by their employers later.

However, even in these cases, some women still cannot access PPE that fits them – because it just doesn’t exist.

The boot doesn’t fit

Finding safety footwear that fits women’s feet was one of the main issues raised by the women that GE spoke to.

Aggregate Industries dump truck driver and Bold as Brass member Elinore Smith has been struggling to find comfortable safety footwear ever since she started her job 18 months ago.

Smith is a shoe size five but was issued with boots in her size that felt more like a size six or seven. These gave her “absolutely zero ankle support”, she said, which is crucial for her job at a quarry that involves walking over granite and large stones.

She is waiting to receive a pair of size four boots, but having tried them on they are "very wide and bulky and provide no support for my feet,” she said.

Research conducted by Bath University senior lecturer in the department of mechanical engineering and research engineer Debbie Janson reveals that many women experience discomfort with their PPE footwear.

A survey conducted by Janson in 2019 found that out of 632 respondents, 63% of women said that their safety footwear was uncomfortable compared to 45% of men.

Janson, who is doing a PhD on sex and gender bias in PPE provision, also found that women often suffer from more blisters and bruising than their male counterparts. Meanwhile, older more experienced women reported problems with their knees and backs – which could be linked to how they were walking in their safety footwear for the last 20 years.

Janson has put these figures down to the fact that, like PPE more widely, safety footwear is made “for an average man’s foot shape”.

The result is that women need to make small adjustments daily just to do their jobs, said Janson.

Another issue is the lack diversity in safety footwear available for women, as some women would prefer footwear that looks distinctly different to the men’s option.

This is a particular challenge for trans women working in construction such as Bold as Brass member Stacey Boston who told GE that “as a trans female it is quite hard to find PPE that fits well, from tops to trousers, although footwear is the hardest".

"I have fairly big feet, so my only option is men's boots,” she noted.

Boston would like to see “more thought [put] into the designs of female PPE, especially aimed at trans women", adding: "We are not all the same size and shape and [need] better footwear options.”

Fighting for change

One woman working to change this picture is Atkins senior chartered building surveyor Sophie Perkins who has designed a female safety shoe collection with footwear company Footsure.

Perkins was inspired to do something after starting her career in building control and realising that she had just two footwear options to chose from - a gentlemen’s boot or a unisex boot.

Neither style fit her well and made her feel “like a complete idiot”, she said. “It really affected my ability to deliver a good job. And I was really unsafe as well.”

At one point Perkins even considered leaving the industry because without having safety footwear that fit her properly in a job that was highly physical, she felt like she didn’t fit in.

Perkins believes that providing a wider choice of PPE clothing and footwear could help to retain and even attract more women into the industry.

Her range of footwear could do just that as it is designed by a woman, for a woman’s foot, and is informed by the needs and experiences of women working across many different industries.

Quantity surveyor Dieudonnee Buhinja is another woman pushing for better PPE provision for all women through her Hair and Safety Campaign.

Buhinja launched it after finding that there were no hard hats available for women like her who have afro textured hair that is often worn in braids or dreadlocks.

“I myself wear braids all year round and found it concerning that in my profession, where I'm expected to occasionally go on site, my head is not protected. I saw that this would be a deterrent for many women wanting a career in construction and who are on site regularly,” she told GE.

Buhinja wants to see PPE designs that are more considerate of women’s physical features.

“We shouldn't have to adopt our hairstyle to suit design, which is what most women in industry are currently doing or they are just not considering coming into the industry. The design should suit our physical features,” she added.

Next steps

To improve PPE provision for women, Perkins believes that women themselves need to drive the change by challenging their companies' in-house procurement teams that are choosing PPE suppliers.

Janson agreed: “There's a triangle of manufacturers and designers, the end users and the regulatory bodies, and the regulations won't change, because they don't see the need at the moment.

“Manufacturers won't change because why would they invest in doing this other than for the greater good, which some companies genuinely do. So, I think there's an education piece that needs to happen to encourage the end users to speak up and say, actually, my PPE doesn't fit.”

Most importantly, women need to work together and “be inclusive” of other groups who also suffer from badly fitting PPE, said Perkins.

“Ill-fitting PPE is not just a women’s only issue, although it’s definitely a huge issue that women face disproportionately. If you mention it to many men, they will also tell you that their shoes have never fitted, and that they didn’t know that you can get boots in different colours.

“So, it's about bringing everyone into the conversation and listening to each other.”