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Tracking the Invisible: Scientific Indicators of the Health Hazards in Women’s Work

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Health and Work

Abstract

The critique of bias in occupational epidemiology continues with this chapter, which demonstrates that most research and practice in the field of occupational health and safety has been insensitive to specifically female concerns. This bias needs to be challenged by the reorientation of research priorities and by the development of new methods that take both biological and social differences between men and women into account. Drawing mainly on examples from studies carried out in collaboration with trades unions in Quebec, this chapter outlines the changes needed to develop gendersensitive practice in occupational health research. It demonstrates the need for the use of more appropriate indicators for monitoring work-related damage, for the elimination of methodological techniques such as ‘adjusting for sex’ and for changes in government policies on issues such as compensation. Above all, it stresses the importance of placing women’s occupational health concerns within the broader framework of their daily lives.

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Authors
  1. Karen Messing
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Editor information

Norma Daykin Lesley Doyal

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© 1999 Karen Messing

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Messing, K. (1999). Tracking the Invisible: Scientific Indicators of the Health Hazards in Women’s Work. In: Daykin, N., Doyal, L. (eds) Health and Work. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27625-7_8

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